A public intervention by Captain Szilveszter Pálinkás, until recently one of the best-known faces of the Hungarian armed forces, has opened a new front in the political dispute surrounding the Druzhba oil pipeline. What had already been a row between Budapest, Bratislava and Kyiv over the condition of the pipeline has now become a broader question about military credibility, classified imagery and the relationship of two NATO member states with sensitive intelligence material.
Pálinkás, a serving Hungarian officer who previously fronted the army’s national recruitment campaign, gave a lengthy interview to Telex in which he described deep problems inside the Hungarian military, including collapsing morale, growing numbers of discharge requests and what he portrayed as damaging political interference in defence matters. The significance of the interview lies not only in its content but in the fact that he spoke publicly while still formally in service, making him one of the most prominent serving critics of the current defence leadership in Hungary.
The wider political fallout, however, concerns the satellite images used by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán during his clash with Ukraine over the Druzhba pipeline. In early...
A viral X post claiming that Eurovision's 2026 contest was secretly "fixed" in Finland's favour spread widely in the days leading up to this year’s final in Vienna. The post, which initially circu...