Hungary raids Orban's Fidesz party servers in graft probe

Hungarian prosecutors on Tuesday raided the data servers of nationalist ex-leader Viktor Orban's Fidesz party as part of an investigation into alleged corruption.

Since ending Orban's hardline 16-year 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 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 statement from Orban's party said on Facebook.

The Bacs-Kiskun County Prosecutor's Office was "conducting an investigation in a criminal case initiated in connection with the National Cultural Fund regarding the crime of embezzlement and other criminal offences," its spokeswoman Marianna Bodo told AFP.

Bodo added that no further information would be provided, "as this would compromise the interests of the ongoing investigation".

It was not immediately clear what Fidesz facility in the southern Bacs-Kiskun County had been raided.

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.

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

After his victory, actor-rapper-activist Aron Molnar publicly alleged that the National Cultural Fund functioned as a state-run payment agency for members of Fidesz's inner circle.

After launching an investigation, the tax authority found that the fund's decision-making body had issued 1079 grants totalling more than 17 billion forints ($54 million) in violation of the rules, according to a previous prosecutor's statement.

In June, six people were accused of embezzlement and taken into custody, including Fidesz politician Balazs Bus, who served as the culture fund's vice-president.

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

Magyar has also pushed to remove a host of Orban-allied figures he accuses of being "puppets", including unpopular ex-president Tamas Sulyok, ousted by constitutional amendment on Sunday.

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

But they have helped to smooth over ties with the European Union, frayed by Orban's closeness to the Kremlin.

Magyar's reform drive is seen as crucial to rapidly unblock 16 billion euros ($18.3 billion) in EU funds frozen over rule-of-law concerns under his predecessor.

He has also approved a dramatic overhaul of public media, which under Orban had become a de facto Fidesz mouthpiece.