Hungary's parliament voted on Tuesday to dismantle the Sovereignty Protection Office, one of the most controversial institutions created under former Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, in a sweeping majority vote that signals a broader dismantling of the structures built during his long rule. The office, established in 2024 shortly before the European Parliament elections, was tasked with investigating critics of the government and intimidating independent media outlets and NGOs under the guise of protecting national sovereignty.

The office operated with an annual budget of around 17 million euros and employed more than one hundred staff. Rather than exercising formal legal powers — critics sometimes called it a paper tiger in that regard — it targeted organisations by demanding repeated submission of the same documents, portraying journalists and civil society groups as foreign agents and seeking to erode public trust in independent voices. Among its targets were Transparency International Hungary and Atlatszo, a prominent investigative news outlet, both of which challenged the office in court. Atlatszo won a first-instance ruling against it in a Budapest court, while Transparency International's case before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg remains pending. The office's director, Tamas Lanczi, a former Orbán speechwriter, earned over 10,000 euros per month. Its creation had prompted the European Commission to open infringement proceedings against Hungary.

Minister of Science and Technology Zoltan Tanacs was blunt ahead of the vote.