Hungary opens communist-era secret police files identifying informants

The archives name thousands of former informants who spied on citizens for the state security services during decades of one-party rule. The prime minister said "many families will now face difficult information." Hungary released thousands of communist-era secret police records to the public on Wednesday as part of the country's long-delayed effort to come to terms with its repressive past. The archives, which are now part of a searchable online database, include the names of thousands of former informants who worked for the state security apparatus during four decades of one-party rule.

Although communism ended in Hungary in 1989, attempts to open the files had been repeatedly stalled. Some critics blamed the delay on successive governments' reluctance to implicate public figures. Center-right Prime Minister Peter Magyar, who unseated longtime populist leader Viktor Orban in April, had pledged to grant the public unrestricted access to the records.

He said ​some 60,000 ‌names had been made public in the new online database.