Hungary’s top diplomat committed “a really big breach of trust” by allegedly sharing the details of secret EU talks with Russia, a former Czech foreign minister has said, warning that the bloc cannot conduct “serious” business while keeping “a Trojan horse inside.” Speaking to TVP World’s World News Tonight, Jan Lipavský – until recently the Czech Republic’s main foreign envoy – said Péter Szijjártó’s contact with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov around EU meetings was concerning. “I would say this is a really big breach of trust,” Lipavský said when asked about reports that confidential material from EU Council meetings may have reached Russia. Lipavský said that while governments can and do speak to allies, “definitely you should not share secrets with them” from internal EU discussions, and “definitely those should not be shared with Russia.” Szijjártó has confirmed he regularly contacts Russian foreign minister Lavrov “before and after” such summits but has denied sharing secrets, saying that nothing confidential is discussed at ministerial level. Exclusion? Czech ex-minister Lipavský said he did not personally witness any such leaks during his own time in office, but argued that Hungary’s conduct inside the EU had long raised concerns. He pointed to Budapest’s record on sanctions, saying it had repeatedly worked to dilute or delay measures targeting Russia, stifling other countries’ efforts. That political pattern, he suggested, is now colliding with the EU’s institutional limits. While larger EU states are already thinking more openly about formats that allow measures to move ahead without Budapest, the Hungarians will always be privy to internal information as long as the country is part of the EU, Lipavský warned. “Informally, you can create those little groups, but at the end of the day, Hungary must be provided that information,” he said, saying that excluding Hungary “completely” would be the only way of cutting its government out of talks. “I’m afraid that politically this may be happening soon,” he added, before acknowledging how difficult exclusion would be in practice because the EU has no straightforward mechanism to expel a member state. Still, he pointed to renewed debate over a “two-speed Europe” – where different members would have different rights – saying it is not the preferred outcome but may become a survival mechanism if one government continues to block common decisions, especially on support for Ukraine. Beyond Hungary Lipavský also spoke about the region’s shifting political landscape ahead of parliamentary elections in Hungary on April 12. Asked about support for Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán from figures on Europe’s right, including Poland’s President Karol Nawrocki, Lipavský dismissed the idea that such alliances reflect genuine regional solidarity. Instead, he described them as part of a broader ideological camp — “the European versions of MAGA.” He also linked those trends to turmoil at home in the Czech Republic, where mass protests in Prague have targeted Prime Minister Andrej Babiš’s government over proposed changes to public media financing and broader concerns about democratic checks and balances.
Lipavský also spoke about the region’s shifting political landscape ahead of parliamentary elections in Hungary.
