"Technical error" in Hungary. The former deputy marshal was listed as a communist agent

On Wednesday, a database was made public in Hungary, which was supposed to shed light on the past of collaborators of the communist secret services. However, instead of the expected transparency, there was a serious mistake. The names of the agents included Sandor Lezsak - former deputy speaker of parliament, one of the founders of the Hungarian Democratic Forum (MDF) and a long-time member of parliament from Fidesz, the party of former Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

Lezsak strongly protested against being assigned the role of an agent, emphasizing that he was a person under surveillance by the communist services, not their collaborator.

Authorities explain "technical error"

Prime Minister Peter Magyar posted an apology on Facebook on Thursday. "As I was unable to contact Sandor Lezsak by phone, I would like to apologize for the fact that his name was included in the agent register due to a technical error," he said.

A similar position was taken by the Hungarian Historical Archive of the Security Services (ABTL), which is responsible for preparing and publishing the database. The official announcement stated that Lezsak's name was included on the website by mistake, and in fact he is listed in the files as a person under surveillance, not as a collaborator of the services.

The services take responsibility, the opposition demands his resignation

The head of ABTL, Gergo Bendeguz Cseh, admitted responsibility for the error in a television interview. He explained that documents relating to agents often also contain the names of persons under surveillance, and some of them were accidentally transferred to the public database. He assured that Lezsak's details have already been deleted and the process of verifying and correcting the remaining names is ongoing.

However, the opposition does not intend to stop at apologies. Janos Boka, leader of Fidesz's parliamentary faction, called for the immediate closure of the website with the database until it is clarified who was actually a collaborator and who was just a victim of surveillance. He also demanded the resignation of Culture Minister Zoltan Tarr, responsible for supervising ABTL.