Velkey said that during Szijjárto’s term nearly 1,500 diplomatic passports were issued at the minister’s discretion as opposed to one or two hundred in previous government cycles.
“Sports clubs, friends, a multitude of politicians in the second or third rank and their family members were granted diplomatic passports, and what is more worrying is that in many cases the beneficiaries were foreigners close to the government for business or other reasons,” he said.
“This was grave wrongdoing also involving great risk from the point of view of national security… These people were doing their dubious business freely as holders of the Hungarian state’s diplomatic passports.”
Under the Tisza government, “nobody will be granted a diplomatic passport in unjustified or inexplicable ways,” he said, adding that the documents so far granted “undeserved and without any foundation” would be withdrawn.
Velkey said the government would only issue diplomatic passports “in cases justified by the national interest” and “only for a justified period”.
Foreign Minister Anita Orbán has proposed withdrawing 943 diplomatic passports issued to individuals who are not diplomats.
Opposition Fidesz said in a statement on Wednesday evening that the issuance and use of diplomatic passports during the previous government always complied with the law.
“After 2010, we expanded Hungary’s network of international relations every year in the fields of politics, the economy, culture and sport. Naturally, the number of trips for diplomatic purposes was also higher than before,” it said.
The Fidesz government, it added, had increased Hungary’s international prestige and room for maneuver.
“We can only hope that the Tisza government is not preparing to dismantle this,” the statement said.
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