Peter Szijjártó Resigns Parliament Seat, Joins Chinese EV Maker BYD Amid Russia‑Tie Investigation

Former Hungarian foreign minister Peter Szijjártó announced on July 15 2026 that he was resigning his parliamentary mandate to take a senior executive position responsible for external relations and new‑business development at Chinese electric‑vehicle group BYD. His move follows a twelve‑year tenure as foreign minister under Viktor Orbán, during which BYD received substantial state subsidies for a European plant and R&D centre in Budapest. New prime‑minister Peter Magyar opened an official investigation into alleged cooperation between Szijjártó and Russia, citing recordings that suggest he regularly briefed Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov on EU negotiations and offered assistance to mitigate EU sanctions on Moscow. The probe, said to involve secret documents, is being treated as a potential case of treason. Hungarian officials, including foreign‑policy minister Anita Orbán, have called the swift transition “unusual” and raised concerns about a conflict of interest, noting that BYD benefited from hundreds of billions of forints in public funding. Szijjártó posted on Facebook that his new role is global and unrelated to the Hungarian operation of BYD. The investigation remains ongoing.