The Hungarian government fired hundreds of high-ranking military personnel during the most extensive reform in the army since the country joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization – NATO.
This was reported by “Bloomberg”.
The agency cited Defense Minister Christophe Chalay-Bobrovnitsky.
He specified that the dismissals affected senior military officials, including generals. according to him the largest share is for colonels and lieutenant colonels.
For the first time, the Hungarian government has confirmed the extent of the changes, but the final number of redundancies will be known next month.
According to some opposition politicians, the goal of the reform is to weaken the country’s Western orientation during the Russian invasion of Ukraine and to fill the army with political supporters as the next step in strengthening the power of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.
Shalai-Bobrovnitsky, however, dismissed the criticism and stated that the change is long overdue.
“You can’t have an ulterior motive in doing things of this magnitude,” the defense minister said.
