Hungarian Minister of Defense talks about breaking with past policy of peace in recording released by Péter Magyar

"The fifth Orbán government has decided to build a truly effective, combat-ready Hungarian army. This means that we are putting an end to our previous efforts towards peace," Minister of Defense, Kristóf Szalay-Bobrovniczky said in the one-minute audio recording released by Péter Magyar on Thursday morning. According to Magyar, the recording was made in April 2023, just over a year after the start of the Russian-Ukrainian war.

In the recording, the defense minister stated that in accordance with the Hungarian government's decision, we are breaking with our previous mentality of peace and are entering "phase zero of the path to war”.

According to him, this change was also served by the army's recent rejuvenation program. The defense minister had assigned Lieutenant General Gábor Böröndi, who was appointed chief of staff of the Hungarian Armed Forces in May 2023, to carry out the transition. “I am honored that he has accepted this task, and I expect him to thoroughly carry out this process”, Szalay-Bobrovniczky said on the occasion.

We have sent questions to the Ministry of Defense about the audio recording released on Thursday morning. Shortly afterwards, the minister commented on the recording in a social media post, saying: "I am building an army that is prepared and capable of defending Hungary! Because peace requires strength".

"Viktor Orbán's government is a government of lies and war. It's over, they must go. Orbán and his people have been deceiving Hungarians about standing for peace, but it has now become clear that they would drag our wonderful country into war," Péter Magyar said, commenting on the recording. According to him, the Minister of Defense admits, and even proudly proclaims, that “what they have been preaching for years is nothing but a bunch of lies.”

In the opinion of the president of the Tisza Party, it has become clear that “while the Orbán government has for years been talking about protecting the Hungarian people, they are precisely the ones who are willing to sacrifice the safety of their own compatriots in exchange for money and power. This is no political mistake. It's a sin. A sin for which there is and never will be forgiveness.”

Gábor Böröndi was appointed head of the Hungarian Armed Forces in May 2023, replacing Romulusz Ruszin-Szendi, who now works as an expert for the Tisza Party. "You have to have the right person in the right place," Szalay-Bobrovniczky said at the time, justifying the decision before the parliament's Defense and Law Enforcement Committee. The defense minister said that Ruszin-Szendi had primarily performed combat duties, whereas the protracted Russian-Ukrainian war required operational-level knowledge and expertise. As he put it: the task of the Hungarian armed forces under Böröndi's leadership is to adapt to the protracted state of war (in Ukraine – TN) and to develop a more combat-oriented, well-equipped, serious military with a new culture.

The wind blew it in through the window

Péter Magyar first spoke on Monday about "the wind having blown a document in through the window," and has consistently referred to this as "Fidesz's Őszöd speech" ever since, but no further details have been revealed until now. (The "Őszöd speech" is a secretely made and consequently leaked recording of a speech given by former socialist prime minister Ferenc Gyurcsány in 2006. In it, Gyurcsány criticized his party for misleading the electorate and used vulgar language, all of which led to a nationwide political crisis and ultimately, Fidesz's landslide victory in the 2010 parliamentary elections.)

Prior to releasing the document, Magyar and Romulusz Ruszin-Szendi said that it completely contradicts the "peace narrative" that the government has been communicating to the public. In their view, this narrative is that while the government has introduced a "state of danger due to war" (in Ukraine – TN), they are constantly talking about peace. "This will provide clear evidence of how they are maneuvering behind the scenes and what dangers they are exposing our country to," Magyar said, adding that the document also contained statements concerning Hungarian national security.

On Wednesday evening, he announced that the following day at 9 am they would be releasing the evidence which would "make it clear to everyone that Orbán and his people have been lying morning, noon, and night for the past few years." According to Magyar, Orbán has been making threats and inciting hatred for three years, and for three years he has talked about nothing but the importance of peace. “But while Orbán and his people have been lying to the outside world for the past few years, they have been doing something completely different behind the scenes.”

The president of the Tisza Party said that this document would make it clear why Romulus Ruszin-Szendi was suddenly removed from the leadership of the Hungarian Defense Forces, and it would also shed new light on the Orbán government's unprecedented military spending and its actions in the international arena. "There are political mistakes, and there are crimes that endanger the security of the Hungarian nation and the Hungarian people. There is no excuse for the latter, nor can there ever be."