Orbán Says He Rebuffed Secret-Police Recruitment as Government Opens Communist-Era Files

On November 3 former PM Viktor Orbán posted 1982 and late-1980s secret-service documents on Facebook, saying he refused recruitment as an informer during military service and that he and his opposition colleagues were later put under heavy surveillance. Reuters reported that Hungary was due to begin releasing tens of thousands of communist-era police files in an online public database on November 4, open to anyone; until now only researchers and people requesting their own or relatives' records had access. Bloomberg reported the same day that Bálint Ruff, head of PM Péter Magyar's office, is leading renewed scrutiny of communist-era and Orbán-era secret files. About 55,000 secret collaborators were recorded between 1956 and 1989. Whether the database went live on schedule was not confirmed at time of writing.