Szijjártó tried to use a ministerial decision to ensure that his ministry wouldn't have to disclose the cost of one of his official trips

According to Átlátszó, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade wanted to use a legal amendment from last year to avoid having to disclose how much one of Minister Szijjártó's official trips, which he took on a chartered plane, had cost. However, in March, the Budapest Metropolitan Court ruled in the first instance that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs must release the information to the investigative paper. The trip in question took place in March 2021, when the foreign minister held talks in Osaka, Kyoto, and Tokyo, and then participated in official programs in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, on his way home from Japan.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs initially responded to Átlátszó's public data request by stating that they did not have the requested data and that the investigative newspaper had provided the wrong registration number for the aircraft used by the foreign minister. Átlátszó eventually took the matter to court. At the hearing on March 20, it turned out that, based on a change in the law last year, a ministerial decision was made on February 26 stating that the requested data couldn't be made available to Átlátszó. The decision was signed by Péter Szijjártó's deputy, Levente Magyar.

In other words, Péter Szijjártó decided that the ministry he heads up couldn't reveal how much one of his flights had cost.

The amendment, which was adopted as part of the omnibus bill entitled "On the establishment of Hungary's central budget for 2025," authorized the Minister of Foreign Affairs to restrict access to data related to the foreign travel of protected persons, such as Péter Szijjártó, based on the opinion of the minister responsible for overseeing civil intelligence activities (Antal Rogán).

The explanatory memorandum states that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs considers the disclosure of data relating to the movements of protected persons to be a particularly high security risk. According to their explanation, familiarity with the data – location, travel route, etc. – could enable the preparation of future insults or criminal acts against the protected person – but Átlátszó was only interested in the costs of the trip. In addition, Szijjártó's communications team was constantly posting updates on the foreign minister's trip, making it very easy to track his whereabouts.

The court, however, found that the foreign minister and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs were not subject to the law. The disclosure of information about Péter Szijjártó's trips abroad cannot be refused on the grounds that "providing access to such information would jeopardize the effective pursuit of Hungary's foreign policy and foreign economic interests free from unauthorized external influence or would threaten its national security interests." The judgment also states that the cited law is not entirely clear due to linguistic errors.