In a video posted on Facebook, Magyar referred to Seszták, a Christian Democrat (KDNP) lawmaker, as “the plunderer of Kisvárda”.

He said it was the first time in Hungarian public life since 1990 that political crime, corruption and mafia-style activities involving a former government member had brought real criminal-law consequences.

Magyar said Operation Cleansing Fire had been launched to rid Hungary of a political and economic mafia “ensnaring everything”, trace and recover stolen public money, and hold accountable criminals who had considered themselves untouchable for decades.

“Wednesday was an important milestone for Operation Cleansing Fire, and the country has taken a huge step forward on the road to renewal,” he said.

Referring to former Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, he added: “Viktor Orbán’s one-time minister is already under arrest, and his other minister and MP, Balázs Hankó, is already in the hands of the authorities.”

Magyar said it would soon become clear how long the “Fidesz mobsters” would observe omertà, the mafia’s code of silence. He suggested that some would testify against the principal organizers, including those he described as “mafia bosses”, to save themselves.

Allegations Over Public Investments

Invoking the name of former Fidesz power broker Lajos Simicska, Magyar said everyone in Hungarian public life had known about Seszták, whom he called “the KDNP’s Simicska”, and the “corruption offences he committed in Kisvarda and across the country”.

The prime minister alleged that Seszták had turned Kisvárda into the Felcsút of eastern Hungary through multibillion-forint investments he described as grossly overpriced and pointless, “which served a single purpose for him: to steal from them”.

Felcsút, Orbán’s home village, is a community of fewer than 2,000 people that received extensive state investment under the previous government, including a football stadium and a zoo.

“But he didn’t only steal locally,” Magyar said. “The casino concessions of Győr and Pécs fell into the laps of his family and business partners, and the Balaton sports ground and campsite didn’t escape his greed either — those were siphoned off too, just as the billions carted off from the world aquatics championships.”

Magyar accused Fidesz of “desperately flailing, diverting attention and making threats” and “whipping up” sentiment against prosecutors, police and investigators.

He said the “fallen mafia” was threatening them because Seszták and Hankó were “not lone criminals but members of a political and economic mafia”.

Criticism of Audit Office and Our Homeland

Magyar said “the mafia boss is terrified” that the two former ministers and aides were only the first to face action.

“While the dominos of the NER fall one after the other, and it must have become clear to everyone that Fidesz ministers and MPs ran an election campaign with Balázs Hankó as a criminal organization, using billions in public money and committing unlawful party and campaign financing, the Fidesz-appointed and Fidesz-kept leader of the State Audit Office, as usual, lies low and has not a single word to say about the open breaches of the law that began at least a year ago,” he said.

Magyar also criticized Our Homeland and its leader, László Toroczkai, for not commenting on the results of Operation Cleansing Fire or the alleged NER corruption offenses involving tens and hundreds of billions of forints in public money emerging daily.

He described the party as “operating as the lifeboat of the collapsing Fidesz mafia”.

“It seems there is a price at which the silence of the members of the once anti-graft-talking ‘green Fidesz’ can be bought,” he said.

Addressing Orbán as “the cowering Turkish emperor” and referring to his “quaking politician-criminal associates”, Magyar said they “should hand back the Hungarians’ diamond farthing”.

He said no list of prosecutors and police officers would stop Operation Cleansing Fire and pledged that the government would protect investigators, prosecutors, judges and employees of the National Asset Recovery and Protection Office.

Appeal for Witnesses and Documents

Dismantling such a network required determination across the country, Magyar said, citing investigators’ expertise, prosecutors’ courage, professional customs officers and journalists’ perseverance.

He also called on witnesses who had previously been afraid to discuss what they knew or had experienced to come forward.

Magyar urged people to preserve documents and submit them to the authorities to help establish who made decisions, demanded payments, acted as intermediaries, paid money and became wealthy, and by how much.

“Long live the homeland, and may the cleansing fire blaze,” he concluded.