By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent, Worthy News
BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – Hungary’s prominent opposition leader says he will press charges against the prime minister for suggesting that he collaborates with Ukraine against Hungarian interests.
Péter Magyar made the announcement on Tuesday while protesters marched in Budapest against the perceived autocratic policies of Viktor Orbán, who has ruled Hungary uninterrupted since 2010.
Magyar, whose Tisza party leads in opinion polls, expressed outrage over a video Prime Minister Orbán posted on social media.
In the video, Orbán suggested that Ukraine, “with the help of a Hungarian opposition party,” conducted an operation against Hungary.
The video included images of Magyar and Romulusz Ruszin-Szendi, a former chief of staff who was dismissed in 2023 and joined the opposition’s Tisza party as an advisor to Magyar.
Magyar called Orbán’s claims “baseless and politically motivated.” In statements seen by Worthy News, Magyar said he will file “a criminal complaint” on Wednesday, accusing Orbán of “spreading false information and concealing a crime against the state.”
“If even a single word of the nonsense the Prime Minister spouted today were true, he shouldn’t have made a Facebook [platform] video. He should have gone straight to the police,” Magyar wrote on social media.
DEFENSE COUNCIL
Orbán published the video after hastily convening the Hungarian Defense Council Tuesday afternoon in response to recent developments in war-torn Ukraine.
In his post-meeting video, Orbán claimed Ukraine launched a “coordinated smear campaign against Hungary to prevent us from holding a national consultation on Ukraine’s [European Union] EU membership.”
Earlier, the ruling Fidesz party’s parliamentary leader, Máté Kocsis, alleged that Tisza was working with Ukraine’s intelligence services.
The Council meeting was apparently triggered by last Friday’s announcement from Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) that it uncovered a “Hungarian military espionage network” operating in western Ukraine.
Two individuals were reportedly detained on charges of collecting information for a possible Hungarian invasion into Ukrainian territory that once belonged to Hungary.
In response, Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó announced the expulsion of two Ukrainian diplomats from Hungary on suspicion of espionage.
Magyar has suggested that the standoff is part of Orbán’s perceived “pro-Russia” agenda in Europe.
OPPOSITION MARCH
He also said an opposition march will begin on Wednesday from Budapest to the Romanian city of Oradea, also known as Nagyvárad, as Orbán supports the Romanian nationalist, pro-Russian presidential candidate there ahead of Sunday’s elections in Romania.
Additionally, it was leaked on Tuesday that European Union member states are secretly exploring ways to advance Ukraine’s EU membership without involving the “pro-Russian Orbán.”
Sources familiar with the talks say officials are concerned that Orban’s “national consultation” will undermine Ukraine’s EU membership prospects despite Hungary’s prior approval to open the accession talks in 2023.
Hungary only lifted its veto that December after Brussels unlocked 10 billion euros ($10.1 billion) in EU funds, blocked due to corruption and rule of law concerns.
Yet the Hungarian government is conducting a billboard campaign against Ukraine’s accession to the EU, urging people to participate in its “national consultation” on the issue.
The posters feature images of leaders of the EU’s executive European Commission, the European People’s Party, and the Ukrainian president, with the message: “Don’t let them decide our future.”
Copyright 1999-2025 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
Latest News from Worthy News
Archaeologists in Jerusalem have uncovered an extraordinary 2,700-year-old pottery fragment inscribed with Assyrian cuneiform near the Temple Mount — the first written evidence of direct contact between the Assyrian Empire and the Kingdom of Judah ever discovered in the city. The find, announced by the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), offers striking confirmation of the biblical narrative of King Hezekiah’s resistance to Assyrian domination recorded in II Kings 18.
Iranian officials are warning of imminent water rationing—and even the potential evacuation of Tehran—as the nation faces its worst drought in nearly a century.
A Christian widow in Pakistan’s Punjab province is devastated after her married daughter went missing, while elsewhere in the region, a mother of four and a mother of six have also disappeared following alleged abductions by Muslim men, Worthy News learned Saturday.
South Korea, long seen as the democratic opposite of its authoritarian-ruled northern neighbor, faces growing scrutiny for what critics call a widening crackdown on Christian leaders and churches.
Hungary’s prime minister told U.S. President Donald J. Trump on Friday that it would take a miracle for Ukraine to win the war against Russia. Viktor Orbán made the remarks at the White House, where Trump asked him during a joint news conference about the prospects for Kyiv’s victory.
Hungarian prosecutors have requested a two-year suspended prison sentence for Gábor Iványi, a 76-year-old Methodist pastor, once a close confidant of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, and several opposition politicians, in a case widely viewed as politically charged.
In a decision that could reshape federal identification standards, the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday allowed the Trump administration to enforce its policy requiring Americans to list their biological sex–male or female–on passports, rather than self-identified gender.