Hungary alleges plot to blow up gas pipeline ahead of election

Hungary alleges plot to blow up gas pipeline ahead of election

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban summoned an urgent session of the National Defence Council after Serbian forces uncovered explosives near a critical gas pipeline. The find, located in a border region of Serbia, coincides with Orban’s party facing significant challenges in opinion polls before the pivotal elections on April 3. Opposition leader Peter Magyar criticized the prime minister for instigating fear, claiming the incident was a “panic-mongering” tactic engineered with “Russian advisers.” This comes after security analysts had previously cautioned about a potential “false flag” attack that might shift blame to Ukraine.

Orban, a staunch ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has consistently opposed EU demands to cut ties with Russian energy imports since the Ukraine invasion. Recent weeks have seen Hungarian security experts speculate that a coordinated operation—either in Hungary or Serbia—could be designed to either rally public support for Orban’s Fidesz party or provide a pretext to delay the election. Serbian President Alexander Vucic, a close partner of Orban, informed him of the discovery on Sunday morning. Two rucksacks containing explosives and detonators were found by the Serbian army near the village of Tresnjevac in the Kanjiza district, approximately 20km from where the TurkStream pipeline enters Hungary.

“Our units identified an explosive with massive destructive potential,” Vucic stated on Instagram. “I have committed to keeping PM Orban informed as the investigation progresses.”

The TurkStream pipeline, a vital energy route for both Hungary and Slovakia, delivers between five and eight billion cubic metres of Russian gas annually. Balint Pasztor, head of the Vojvodina Hungarian Association, and another key ally of Orban shared a Facebook post suggesting that if the attack was not aimed at Hungary, it would “clearly” support Orban’s claim of a coordinated effort to destabilize his political position.

Fidesz’s election strategy hinges on portraying Ukraine as an aggressor. At campaign events, Orban has emphasized that Hungary’s low energy costs depend on cheap Russian oil and gas, with oil arriving via Ukraine and gas through the Balkans. He accuses a “Kyiv-Brussels-Berlin” alliance of conspiring to disrupt Hungary’s energy supply and replace him with a “puppet” leader. A government led by Magyar, he argues, would thrust Hungary into a broader European conflict with Russia.

Orban has already blamed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for blocking Russian oil through the Druzhba pipeline, which crosses Ukrainian territory. No Russian oil has reached Hungary via this route since January. Ukraine asserts the pipeline was damaged in a Russian strike and expects it to resume operations by mid-April. Despite this, no official accusations of Ukrainian involvement have been made yet.

A Serbian official told the BBC that the investigation’s first results might reveal Ukrainian ties as early as Monday. On April 2, Hungarian security analyst Andras Racz predicted that the explosives would be traced to Ukraine, reinforcing Orban’s narrative. “We had concrete data on this operation, including its location and timing,” said Peter Buda, a former senior counter-intelligence officer. “This attack aligns with Ukraine’s interests, which would benefit Orban’s political campaign.”

The Hungarian government insists the threat is genuine, highlighting a series of incidents they believe target their energy infrastructure. “We’ve witnessed a full-scale oil blockade, drone strikes on the TurkStream pipeline while it was still under Russian control, and now this explosive discovery,” wrote Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto on Facebook. Meanwhile, Magyar has alleged that Orban and Vucic colluded to stage the latest event.