Botond Feledy

Orban’s latest move, amid heightened (and well-founded) European fears of Russian sabotage operations: forbes.hu/tarsadalom/oro…

💥SCOOP: Some reshuffling is expected in Orbán's staff after the pedophilia scandal that rocket his government and led to the resignation of President @KatalinNovak_HU. For example, according to my sources with ties to the government, there are plans to set up a new Strategic Advisory Board advising the prime minister. It could be partly filled with senior security/intelligence advisors, partly with some "respectable" right-wing figures. Names floated: Károly Papp (currently overseeing intelligence agencies as state secretary at the PM's Cabinet Office), József Kovács (national security advisor), György Bakondi (internal security advisor). Other members would include some names who were runner-ups to succeed Katalin Novák as president, such as senior academic Miklós Maróth, former constitutional court judge and former minister István Stumpf, and former State Audit Office head Árpád Kovács. The idea is that Orbán's image as a strong leader who is always in charge and surrounds himself with serious people should be reinforced after the pedophilia scandal which exposed his government's weaknesses. However, there's another goal, one of my sources told me. Setting up such an advisory board would also indicate serious changes in the political oversight of Hungary's national security agencies, as Papp and Kovács are expected to leave their current (much more important) roles if they would join this new group. They are representatives of the "old guard" – getting rid of them would make way for a new generation of politically more loyal government officials to oversee national security agencies. If the advisory board is indeed set up, it could happen next week – but there are still some tensions around it, my sources told.