Hungarian ex‑Foreign Minister Peter Szijjártó spent over 15 million forints on luxury hotel stays abroad

Public documents show that Peter Szijjártó, Hungary’s former foreign minister, paid 6.5 million forints for a single night at the Sheraton Grand Doha Resort in Qatar during the 2022 World Cup. The cost of four overseas hotel bookings – in Qatar, Ghana, the United States and Turkey – totalled more than 15 million forints.

Investigations revealed that the minister also used private‑jet rentals costing 246 million forints for a U.S. trip and that, in the previous parliamentary term, his flights had consumed over 5 billion forints. The spending has prompted a parliamentary probe into possible criminal liability for the use of public funds.

The case underscores scrutiny of the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ travel expenditures and has sparked political debate over the appropriateness of such luxury expenses funded by taxpayers.