Tímea Szabó, Member of the National Assembly of Hungary, is a CIA agent. At least, that’s what Viktor Orbán would like you to believe.
In actuality, Szabó worked briefly as a researcher for Harvard University, but as a politician publicly opposed to Orban’s government, this kind of propaganda is typical.
“One day, my husband took a picture of a newsstand where every single paper had me on the cover with the same story that I was a CIA agent,” Szabó said.
Szabó’s Journey to Parliament
Tímea Szabó is 49 years old and has been a member of Hungarian Parliament for fifteen years, but her humanitarian work and political career began long before she was elected. While in university in Hungary, she worked for an English-language newspaper before becoming a correspondent at Bloomberg News.
She moved to Boston to research conflict prevention strategies at Harvard, traveling to Pakistan in 2001 to work at a refugee camp along the Afghan border for three months. After the 9/11 attacks, Szabó began to research Afghanistan and lived in Kabul for a year and a half to help establish Afghanistan’s transitional government.
Szabó returned to Hungary and joined the Hungarian-Helsinki Committee, one of the largest human rights organizations in the country. In 2010, she was elected into parliament with the green party movement, LMP. In 2012 she left to start a new political party, Dialogue for Hungary, which she co-chaired until 2022 and has been affiliated with the party since.
The party’s social issues include the reduction of poverty, accessible and quality healthcare and education for everyone.
“It’s a very difficult job.” she said. “Imagine the United States has been run by Trump and conservative Republicans for fifteen years, nonstop.”
Most of Szabó and her colleagues’ achievements are won by creating public pressure so the government feels it necessary to respond. Recently, Szabó obtained a 15% wage raise promise for child protection workers in foster care to be implemented in the new year.
The Hungarian Propaganda Machine
Fighting for her constituent’s needs isn’t Szabó’s only battle – she’s a main target of disinformation spread by Fidesz, Orban’s political party. There are times she can laugh at the propaganda about her, like when the media framed her as a member of the CIA. Other times, however, are more serious.
“Later on, they published other articles about me smuggling cocaine from Marbella, Spain, and financing my political campaign with the money that I got through cocaine.”
The Hungarian Police began an investigation on Szabó, her husband and their two children for months.
“[They parked] in front of our house 24/7, they followed us to the kindergarten where I took my smaller kid, and even my husband to the shopping mall,” Szabó said. “That was not fun, to tell your child that you are under illegal surveillance.”
Despite Hungarian law requiring court permission to surveil citizens, for Szabó there were no court approved requests for an investigation on her.
A Shift in Hungary’s Future
Orban’s Fidesz is currently 12 percentage points below Tisza, another conservative party led by Peter Magyar, ahead of the 2026 parliamentary elections.“[Magyar’s] psycho,” Szabó said. “He’s very aggressive, very abusive.”
Peter Magyar is known to heavily criticize the press and independent media, even attempting to discredit specific outlets for their reports on him. He departed from the opposing party Fidesz in early 2024.
“Everyone feels like we have no other choice but to support him because we want to get rid of Fidesz,” said Szabó.
She joked dryly, “People would vote for a goat if there was a chance of it winning.”
Szabó Has Something to Say to the U.S.
Szabó’s advice to the American Left is simple: do not give in and focus on the real issues, like living standards, healthcare, and jobs.
“Trump hasn’t even been in power for a year, yet the opposition is tired already, believing that the demonstrations are in vain. Orban learned not to attack demonstrations because he knew people would get bored and go home. And now, our country is so ruined, it’s almost too late for us,” said Szabó.
She is apprehensive about continuing to speak out against Trump’s administration, as she worries about her Visa being banned. However, Szabó is one of three women featured in a documentary called Democracy Noir, exposing corruption under Orban’s regime. It’s available on Apple TV in the Czech Republic.
“You have to make young people understand that politics are everything. This is your life. [Soon] there won’t be any democracy left, any freedom left,” said Szabó.
