Hungary's government has opened an investigation into a major foreign investment by the Chinese automaker BYD — a deal negotiated by Péter Szijjártó, the country's former foreign minister, who resigned his seat in Parliament last week to take an executive position at the very company he had helped bring to Hungary. The timing turned a long-running policy debate into a conflict-of-interest controversy overnight.
Szijjártó announced last Wednesday that he would join BYD, the world's top-selling electric-vehicle maker, describing it as a "prestigious" opportunity to work for one of the "greatest success stories" in the auto industry. Within days, the government said it would scrutinize the subsidies and support he had steered to the company while in office.
What the government says it will examine
Prime Minister Péter Magyar — who defeated longtime leader Viktor Orbán in April 2026 — told lawmakers on Monday that Szijjártó, a close Orbán ally, had assisted BYD while in government "with hundreds of billions (of forints) in public money, diplomatic support and state infrastructure." He framed the inquiry broadly.
"We will examine all the decisions, negotiations and state commitments made by Péter Szijjártó that were related to the BYD Hungary investment," Magyar said, adding that the probe would extend to "all subsidies, tax breaks, permits, environmental exemptions and publicly-funded investments given to large multinational firms during Orbán's tenure." The government, he said, would investigate "who made these decisions, who prepared them, what professional warnings were ignored, and how much burden they left on Hungarian taxpayers, workers, local communities and the environment."
As of the announcement, neither Szijjártó nor BYD had responded to the conflict-of-interest allegations. Szijjártó has characterized his move purely as a career opportunity, not a reward.
The deals now under scrutiny
The investments at the center of the inquiry were, until recently, showcased as major economic wins. In 2023, Szijjártó announced that BYD would build its first European factory in Hungary, in the southern city of Szeged — a move that also allowed the company to manufacture inside the European Union and sidestep the bloc's import tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles. In 2025, he announced that BYD would place its European headquarters and a research-and-development center in Budapest, supported by 20 billion forints, about $63.7 million, in government assistance.
Those deals were part of a wider strategy under the Orbán government to turn Hungary into a global hub for lithium-ion battery manufacturing, largely by courting Chinese firms that built a string of plants across the country. That push drew protests from residents, environmentalists and opposition politicians, who warned about strain on water supplies, environmental damage and deepening economic dependence on China — the same concerns the new government now says it wants the investigation to weigh.
A wider set of questions about Russia ties
The BYD inquiry is not the only cloud over Szijjártó. As foreign minister, he maintained unusually close relations with Russia after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, traveling frequently to Moscow to negotiate oil and gas deals and meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, whom he has called a "friend." During Hungary's 2026 election campaign, a report alleged he made regular calls to Lavrov around high-level EU meetings, relaying accounts of what was discussed. Szijjártó dismissed that characterization but acknowledged conferring with Lavrov before and after EU foreign-minister meetings about their agendas. Magyar has said a separate investigation into Szijjártó's connections to the Russian government has also been launched.
The political backdrop
It is impossible to separate the inquiry from the power shift behind it. The government now examining the Orbán era's signature investment deals is led by the man who ousted Orbán at the ballot box, and the target is one of Orbán's most prominent lieutenants. That context cuts two ways: supporters of the probe cast it as overdue accountability for opaque, subsidy-heavy deals with foreign firms, while allies of the former government are likely to see a newly empowered rival turning the machinery of the state against its predecessors. With Szijjártó and BYD yet to answer the allegations, the case will test whether the investigation produces documented findings — or becomes another front in Hungary's polarized politics.
