Hungary opens files from its communist-era secret police that list informants

Updated 2026-11-04 · told from many outlets at once

Hungary will release communist-era secret police files to the public on Wednesday. The files show 150,000 informants were used over four decades, and a historian warned the release could trigger public panic.

• The Hungarian government has made communist-era secret police files public.
• Prime Minister Peter Magyar pledged to grant the public unrestricted access to the records.
• Secret police employed a total of 150,000 informants during four decades, according to state security archives estimates.
• Historian Laszlo Eorsi predicted the release could cause some hysteria in the coming months.

Outlets: Courrier international, Danas, Deutsche Welle, EL PAÍS: el periódico global, LRT (Lithuanian), MyJoyOnline, Proto Thema English, RTL Today, RTS Info, Telex (Kulfold)

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