Hungary prosecutors raid data servers of Viktor Orban's Fidesz, party says

The Fidesz party of Hungary's nationalist ex-leader Viktor Orban, which was swept from power in elections in April, said on Tuesday that prosecutors had launched a raid on its data servers.

Since ending Orban's hardline 16-year-long rule, Prime Minister Peter Magyar's new pro-European conservative government has rushed to loosen the self-styled "illiberal" leader's lingering grip on the central European country.

Magyar has also vowed to pursue figures who enabled corruption, which watchdogs believe became endemic under his predecessor, and recover public assets from those who "illegally acquired" them.

"Investigators from the prosecutor's office showed up unannounced at the data centre hosting Fidesz's servers with the intention of seizing the party's entire communications system and databases," a party statement said on Facebook.

The party claimed that "there has been no precedent for this in Hungary since 1990, the end of communism".

In the wake of the announcement, Magyar said on Facebook that he had learnt of the alleged raid from Fidesz.

"We are awaiting a statement from the prosecutor's office," he added.

Magyar's Tisza party swept the April elections on the promise of "regime change", winning a two-thirds majority in parliament.

His government has moved to turn the page on the Orban era, including by passing a swathe of anti-corruption measures and changing the constitution to effectively bar Orban from running again.

Fidesz has decried Magyar's moves as "autocratic", a charge that was often levelled against the former nationalist leader himself during his tenure.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)