Hungary releases secret police files from communist era

Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar’s key campaign promise to release files containing the socialist regime’s informant network has finally come to fruition after decades of debate.

The government on Wednesday gave citizens access to previously restricted files, allowing them to search online for ancestors’ names, 70 years after the Soviet Union crushed the Hungarian revolution of 1956. The files’ release had proved particularly controversial as the names mentioned in them were not necessarily actual informants, but sometimes just “persons of interest” to the regime.

In a public address Wednesday, Magyar urged citizens to “treat this long overdue publication of documents with dignity and humanity” as “many families will now face difficult information” regarding their personal history.

Culture Minister Zoltán Tarr said he hoped the publishing of the files would “enable a long-term reconciliation by revealing the secrets of the past.” His father is mentioned in the files but received official confirmation that he was never an agent.

Viktor Orbán was rumored to be a member of the secret police, but the former prime minister said in a Facebook statement Tuesday that he had refused any cooperation when he was approached at the beginning of his mandatory military service. Orbán instead protested that he, his wife and colleagues were “under constant surveillance” and were “targets of the state party’s secret investigations.”

More files are being digitized and will be made available by Feb. 25 next year, detailing the network’s recruitment process.

Júlia Vadler contributed to reporting.