Hungary’s new government has proposed revoking hundreds of diplomatic and service passports issued under the previous administration after completing a review of non-automatic passport allocations, government spokesperson Vanda Szondi announced on Wednesday, 27 May.
According to Szondi, Hungarian Minister for Foreign Affairs Anita Orbán reviewed a total of 1,322 diplomatic and service passports that had not been issued automatically on the basis of office or entitlement. Of these, 1,131 were diplomatic passports and 191 were service passports. The foreign minister recommended withdrawing 943 of them in total—776 diplomatic passports and 167 service passports.
The announcement comes after the government of Prime Minister Péter Magyar said earlier this month that it would launch a comprehensive review of diplomatic passports issued in recent years, arguing that more than one thousand such documents may have been circulating without proper justification.
Szondi stated that the review examined the number of passports issued, the legal grounds under which they had been granted, and the practice of extraordinary authorizations. The government has not yet disclosed the identities of those who received the documents under the previous Fidesz-led administration.
According to the spokesperson, the Hungarian Ministry of Justice is currently assessing how broadly the names of passport holders can be made public while remaining compliant with privacy and data protection laws. Further information will be released once the legal review is completed.
The passport review also appears to form part of a broader overhaul of Hungarian diplomacy and the foreign ministry under the new Tisza government. In recent interviews, Hungarian Minister for Foreign Affairs Anita Orbán said the government plans a ‘comprehensive review’ of Hungary’s diplomatic network and wants to rebuild ‘diplomatic culture and standards of conduct’ following what it describes as years of politicization under the previous administration.
During the final stretch of the election campaign, former Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó came under heavy criticism from both domestic and international media following leaked audio recordings revealing an unusually close relationship with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. The recordings appeared to suggest coordination regarding Hungary’s strategy on EU decision-making, including discussions concerning the removal of Kremlin-linked figures from the bloc’s sanctions list.
‘The passport review also appears to form part of a broader overhaul of Hungarian diplomacy’
The scandal became one of the central issues of the final three weeks of the campaign, as Péter Magyar and the Tisza Party framed the election as a referendum on Hungary’s geopolitical orientation and whether the country would move closer to Russia or return more firmly to the traditional Western alliance system.
Since taking office earlier this month, Prime Minister Péter Magyar’s government has repeatedly signalled a strategic foreign policy reset aimed at restoring ties with the European Union and NATO allies. The prime minister’s first foreign visits also reflected this shift, as he travelled to Poland and Austria—two key regional powers with which the Orbán government had increasingly strained relations in its final years.
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