Unterlagen der staatssicherheitsdienstlichen Überwachungen in Ungarn – Zugang, Aufarbeitung, Hindernisse

Abstract

More than thirty years have passed since the change of regime and the question of what can be done by those who were under state surveillance in the previous regime is still relevant. How can a victim find out who tore his family apart, who ruined his career? Will the identity of the collaborators ever come to light? Can these people still participate in public life and hold public office today? In our study, we take stock of the specificities of the subject in Hungary and the obstacles to facing history. We conclude that the exclusion from holding a public office is overdue, the documents are incomplete, their authenticity is questionable, and the issue is sensitive because of competing fundamental rights. The generation that has become of age since the change of regime is less and less interested in our immediate past. This trend is dangerous, because the unresolved past contributes to the blurring of the dividing line between the two regimes to the point where, faced with the new difficulties, society is left longing for the old. Will there be a real change? The legal possibility (at least in the field of information compensation) is still there, and this is what we show in our study.