Key facts
- Orban said informants were set on his circle and listening devices were installed in workplaces, homes and bedrooms.
- Orban said his 16-year nationalist rule ended in an April election when Peter Magyar's Tisza party ousted him.
- Hungary recorded some 55,000 secret collaborators between 1956 and 1989, according to the report.
- Until the archive opens, only researchers and people seeking their own or close family records could access the files.
Viktor Orban, Hungary's former prime minister, said on November 3, 2026 that Communist secret services tried to recruit him as an informer during the early part of his military service and that he refused. He issued the statement on Facebook together with secret service documents from 1982 and the late 1980s.
"During the early part of my military service, they attempted to recruit me, but I refused, so the attempt proved unsuccessful," Orban wrote. He added that he, his wife and fellow opposition members were later kept under constant surveillance.