Hungary's FM Szijjártó disappears from public view after Orbán's defeat
Hungary's Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó (photo: Getty Images)
Hungary's Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó disappeared from public view after the parliamentary elections, in which former Prime Minister Viktor Orbán was defeated, according to 444.hu.
Hungarian media drew attention to Szijjártó's absence from the public space after the elections.
Journalists note that Hungary's foreign minister was not next to Orbán during his public acknowledgment of defeat. In addition, Szijjártó has not shown activity on social media for more than 16 hours.
The last post by the Hungarian minister on Facebook appeared around 16:00 on Sunday, April 12. At that time, he called on supporters of the Fidesz party to take part in the vote.
Earlier that day, the foreign minister published a photo with his wife after voting in the elections.
Szijjártó's absence amid important political events has caused discussion in the media and among observers.
Elections in Hungary
Yesterday, April 12, parliamentary elections took place in Hungary.
The opposition Tisza party, led by Péter Magyar, won the majority of votes.
According to polls and preliminary results, the political force received about 57% of the vote, while Viktor Orbán's Fidesz party received about 37%.
After counting 99% of the votes, Tisza won 138 seats in parliament, and Fidesz won 55, which gives the opposition more than two-thirds of the mandates and effective control over power.
Orbán himself, who had led the government for about 16 years, has already acknowledged his defeat.
Leak of Szijjártó's talks with Lavrov
On March 31, audio recordings of conversations between Hungary's Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov regarding the removal of sanctions from influential Russians appeared online.
In particular, the Russian minister asked to help remove from the sanctions list the sister of oligarch Alisher Usmanov, Gulbahor Ismailova, and she was indeed later removed from the list.
In addition, The Washington Post wrote that Szijjártó regularly contacted Lavrov during breaks in meetings in Brussels, which effectively gave Moscow indirect access to negotiations in the European Union.
Later, the Hungarian minister himself acknowledged that he maintains such contact.
Szijjártó also faced a new wave of criticism a few days before the elections in the country due to the leak of his conversations with Lavrov.
In one of the fragments, Szijjártó, after Lavrov's request, allegedly agrees to pass a document on the role of minority languages in negotiations on Ukraine's accession to the European Union.
