Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar has appointed Péter Buda, a former counterintelligence officer and vocal critic of Magyar’s predecessor, Viktor Orbán, to a new position overseeing the country’s intelligence services. The move comes after Magyar dismissed all four Orbán-era directors of the country’s main intelligence services. The officials heading the foreign intelligence service, domestic security agency, national security technical support service and military security service, were removed on Saturday. During Orbán’s 16 years in power, the pro-Moscow populist was accused of using the intelligence services to spy on EU institutions and political opponents as well as to hack journalists’ phones using the controversial Pegasus spyware. Orbán was ousted in parliamentary elections in April, since when Magyar has sought to rebuild public trust in state institutions. Buda’s new position will be at the level of state secretary—the equivalent of a deputy minister—reporting directly to Magyar’s national security advisor, Péter Tóth, investigative journalism site VSquare reported, describing the role as akin to the US’s Director of National Intelligence. ‘Defend democracy' Buda told VSquare he intends to use the position to “defend democracy,” specifying his priorities as depoliticizing the services, changing their personnel, and adjusting them to a new political-security environment. He also said he and his team would not be involved in operational issues but would have a strategic and analytical function that would seek to end long-running rivalry between Hungary’s intelligence agencies. “I ultimately accepted the offer because I was given assurances that the goal is to place the national security community on strictly professional footing and to establish its party-political neutrality, so that the services genuinely protect the security of the nation and of democracy, rather than serving whichever party happens to be in power against its political rivals,” Buda wrote on Substack.
