In light of “drastic changes” to Hungary’s security environment in recent years, the prime minister’s cabinet office has proposed setting up a new body headed by a chief national security advisor.
Csaba Dömötör, state secretary at the cabinet office, said in parliament in his introduction to the bill on Tuesday that the new and powerful body would help the prime minister with “promoting the government’s endeavors for peace and security in all circumstances”. The prime minister’s chief national security advisor will have a “similar legal status to that of the prime minister’s political director”, Dömötör said. The chief advisor will help the prime minister “with questions concerning national security, with special regard to the civilian national security and intelligence activities, law enforcement, crime prevention, and maintaining public order in general,” the state secretary said. The new official will make proposals and participate in the decision-making process, he added. Fidesz MP Csaba Nagy expressed his party’s support for the bill, and called for a higher level of coordination of national security aspects. Referring to the war in Ukraine, he said the Hungarian government must use every available facility to ensure the security of the country and its people.