Hungary's former prime minister Viktor Orbán has accused the country's judiciary of launching a politically motivated investigation against his Fidesz party, following a raid on a Budapest data centre that hosted servers linked to the party. The operation, carried out on 21 July by the Bács-Kiskun County Prosecutor's Office, was part of a broader probe into alleged irregularities at Hungary's state-run National Cultural Fund.
Prosecutors suspect the fund's decision-making body of unlawfully awarding 1,079 grants worth more than 17 billion forints (€47 million), in breach of funding rules. The raid targeted a service provider storing electronic data linked to Fidesz, and authorities seized data storage devices after citing a lack of cooperation from the party and the volume of data involved.
Orbán's political counterattack
Speaking outside Fidesz headquarters, Orbán described the investigation as a pretext to seize the party's servers and make Fidesz 'legally unviable'. 'By yesterday, I had come to realise what this was all about,' he told journalists. 'What happened was that this served as a pretext to seize Fidesz’s servers.' He questioned the legal basis for the seizure, arguing that if a political party's servers are seized by the government of a rival political force, that is a problem.
His claims were echoed by political allies abroad. French MP Marine Le Pen of the far-right National Rally party and Italy's transport minister Matteo Salvini expressed solidarity on X, accusing Hungarian authorities of violating the rule of law. Balázs Orbán, Viktor Orbán's former political director, told Euronews's fact-checking team that the seizure was an attempt to obtain sensitive information about the party, including details on supporters, activists, and internal communications.
Legal experts see no breach
Despite the political outcry, legal experts consulted by The Cube found no evidence that the investigation itself breaches the rule of law. Tamás Lattmann, an associate professor of law at Tomori Pál College in Budapest and the University of New York in Prague, said the actions described so far appear to comply with both Hungarian law and European human-rights standards. 'Currently, with these actions and these situations, I don't see any additional or heightened danger to the rule of law or the safeguarding of human rights,' he said. He added that all legal safeguards and judicial options remain available, concluding: 'I don’t think there is a reason to cry wolf at this point.'
Lattmann argued that Orbán and his allies are presenting the investigation as persecution, but this should be understood as political communication rather than evidence of an actual rule-of-law crisis. 'I don't think that this qualifies as a real and clear and present danger,' he said.
Daniel Hegedüs, deputy director at the Berlin-based German Institute for European Politics (Institut für Europäische Politik), said the investigation should be viewed in the context of Hungary's changing political landscape. He noted that the prosecution service had been under Fidesz's political influence for much of the previous 16 years, and that the current probe is an example of the justice system examining alleged breaches of the law. 'What we see is that Hungarian justice is doing what more or less an independent justice system, an independent prosecution service needs to do in cases of alleged violations of the law,' he said. Hegedüs added that Fidesz's accusations follow a familiar political pattern.
Prosecutor general resigns
On 22 July, Prosecutor General Gábor Bálint Nagy announced his resignation, with his mandate set to end on 25 August 2026. In a statement, Nagy said that preserving the independence and authority of the judiciary, including the prosecution service, is a fundamental part of a democratic institutional system. 'The prosecution service must not become an instrument serving political struggles, nor the stage for daily political interests or power games,' the statement read.
The resignation comes amid broader tensions in Hungary's political landscape. Prime Minister Péter Magyar, who has positioned himself as an anti-corruption reformer, has been pushing for greater judicial independence. The European Commission has backed Magyar's anti-corruption drive, prompting protests from far-right parties across the EU. The investigation into the National Cultural Fund is one of several probes that have emerged since Magyar took office, including an inquiry into subsidies for Chinese carmaker BYD after a former minister joined the company.
For now, legal experts maintain that the raid on the Fidesz data centre appears to follow standard procedures. The Bács-Kiskun County Prosecutor's Office said it is working to secure access to the seized devices, back up the data, and analyse it. Whether the investigation will uncover evidence of wrongdoing or remain a political flashpoint remains to be seen.
