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Hungary’s outgoing foreign minister, Péter Szijjártó, will skip next week’s foreign affairs meeting in Luxembourg following the defeat of Viktor Orbán’s government, EU diplomats told Euronews. His office did not respond to a request for comment.
Yesterday, diplomats confirmed that outgoing Prime Minister Viktor Orbán will skip next week’s informal European Summit in Cyprus.
Szijjártó was at the centre of controversy during the campaign over his close ties to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
Leaked phone calls suggested he had offered to help remove Russian businessmen from the EU sanctions list and had contacted Russian counterparts during a key European summit in 2023, when Ukraine’s accession talks were under discussion.
Following Sunday’s elections resulting in a landslide with Tisza, Szijjártó has largely disappeared from public view, including social media where he used to be very active.
On Monday, Hungary’s prime minister-elect, Péter Magyar, accused Szijjártó of shredding sensitive documents related to Russia sanctions at the foreign ministry.
Magyar and his foreign affairs adviser, Anita Orbán, urged ministry staff to preserve all relevant files. The ministry rejected the claims on Wednesday, saying only paper copies of electronic files had been destroyed and no data was lost.
Szijjártó faces scrutiny over secret calls to Moscow
Péter Szijjártó’s close ties to Moscow became a major campaign issue after leaked transcripts and recorded phone calls emerged.
In March, The Washington Post reported that Szijjártó had called Russian officials during breaks in EU meetings in Brussels. He disputed the timing, saying the calls took place before and after the meetings, and denied breaching any rules calling it diplomatic engagement. Russia is the most sanctioned country under EU rules.
Later that month, a group of investigative journalists published a recording of a call between Szijjártó and his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, in which the Hungarian minister offered to help secure the removal of a Russian businessman’s sister from EU sanctions lists — at Lavrov’s request.
In April, ahead of the general election, a further leak alleged that Szijjártó had briefed Lavrov during a break at a key EU summit in Brussels in December 2023, at which leaders were discussing the launch of Ukraine’s accession talks. According to the recording, Lavrov proposed that Szijjártó use the occasion to apply pressure on the EU.
Szijjártó dismissed the leaks as the work of foreign intelligence services, accusing them of targeting then Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s government ahead of the vote.