In Slovakia, the opposition is demanding explanations from the government following a controversial statement by Hungarian election winner Péter Magyar. The political scandal was triggered by a speech from Péter Magyar, leader of the Tisza party and Hungary’s incoming prime minister, in which he outlined his government’s migration policy.
“We will not dump migrants at the Slovak border when it serves the interests of our Slovak comrade during an election campaign,” Magyar said, in an apparent reference to the actions of Viktor Orbán’s previous Hungarian government.
According to Magyar, under Orbán, Hungary allegedly deliberately funnelled flows of illegal migrants toward the Slovak border to artificially inflate the migration situation and help the then-opposition figure Robert Fico win the 2023 parliamentary elections. Magyar claimed this indicated the existence of a tacit agreement between Orbán and Fico.
MP Jaroslav Špišák of the opposition party Progressive Slovakia responded sharply. He stated that Magyar’s words “lift the curtain” on what truly lay behind the sharp drop in illegal migration immediately after the Fico government came to power.
“This explains why the migration crisis at our border came to such a swift ‘halt’ after the elections. The authorities are now obliged to give clear explanations to both the public and parliament,” Špišák stressed.
Slovakia’s ruling coalition has yet to issue an official comment on Magyar’s statements. The opposition has already announced parliamentary inquiries and is demanding hearings on migration policy in previous years, as well as on the possibility of external interference in Slovak elections.