A Hungarian conservative influencer was arrested in the early hours of Wednesday, July 8th and has since been released after spending several hours in custody, in a case that seems to confirm the new, pro-Brussels Hungarian government’s authoritarian tendencies.
István Szakács was taken into custody in the western city of Győr after police searched his home. Eight officers arrived shortly after 6 a.m., carried out a house search, and took him away for questioning.
The police said they were investigating Szakács on suspicion of making threats related to a terrorist offence. The allegation stems from a Facebook video in which he warned liberal Prime Minister Péter Magyar not to attempt to have his predecessor, conservative Viktor Orbán arrested in connection with the Ukrainian “gold convoy” scandal.
In the post, Szakács said that if Orbán were taken into custody, “500,000 Hungarians” would come to free him “wherever he is.”
Szakács was released after approximately four hours in police custody. Speaking afterwards to daily Magyar Nemzet, he said officers from the National Bureau of Investigation had taken DNA samples from him before the questioning.
He rejected the allegation of ‘terrorism,’ arguing that his comments referred to political protest and public solidarity rather than any attempt to storm a protected facility. “The police wanted me to admit that I had encouraged people to free Viktor Orbán physically. That is absurd,” he said.
Orbán himself described the case as evidence that “authoritarianism has reached a new level.” Writing on Facebook, he said:
Embed: They take you away simply for daring to criticise the prime minister. Today it’s him, tomorrow it’s you. Don’t let it happen.
The former prime minister called on supporters to attend a demonstration outside Budapest’s Sándor Palace on Thursday evening, July 9.
Conservative journalist László Szentesi Zöldi described Szakács as a “political prisoner,” while the organisation Védvonal—recently established to give legal assistance to persecuted conservatives—pledged to provide him with legal representation, arguing that the case represented a disproportionate restriction on freedom of expression.
The investigation is linked to the “gold convoy” affair, in which Hungarian authorities—under the previous, Orbán-led government—intercepted two armoured vehicles in March carrying approximately $40 million, €35 million, and nine kilograms of gold from Austria towards Ukraine.
At the time, Hungarian government officials, Austrian right-wing politicians, as well as several analysts questioned why enormous amounts of cash and gold were being transported across borders rather than transferred via standard financial systems.
While the scandal points to potential large-scale corruption within the Ukrainian government, it is Orbán and his previous cabinet that are being investigated.
Lawyers representing the Ukrainian suspects have since sought criminal proceedings against Orbán and several former senior officials, while Hungarian prosecutors say separate investigations into suspected money laundering and the conduct of the original police operation remain ongoing.
The arrest of István Szakács is further evidence of the new government’s persecution of its conservative rivals.
As we reported, Orbán’s Fidesz party is organising a protest against a series of fast-tracked constitutional amendments, including measures to forcibly remove and replace the president of the republic, as well as the president of the Constitutional Court, along with several judges, before the end of their mandates.
The changes would also retroactively limit the mandates of members of parliament to three terms or 12 years, a move completely unprecedented in Europe, clearly designed to eliminate about half of all right-wing opposition MPs.
Meanwhile, the very same EU institutions that had criticised for many years the rule of law violations supposedly committed by Viktor Orbán and his cabinet, now remain completely silent.
Zoltán Kottász is a journalist for europeanconservative.com, based in Budapest. He worked for many years as a journalist and as the editor of the foreign desk at the Hungarian daily, Magyar Nemzet. He focuses primarily on European politics.
