As soon as a target appears, it hides behind a pillar. When cameras can't be avoided, he hides his face behind a surgical mask, sometimes paired with a pretty green fedora, which previous reports suggest fits well with the dated Italian dandy style he's recently adopted. However, these latter and various facial recognition software used by Le Monde and its partners at the Hungarian investigative site Direkt36 are categorical: the man who puts so much emphasis on hiding in the official images of the numerous Hungarian diplomatic visits to the Sahel in these last few months is actually the Son of Viktor Orban.
Also listen to Viktor Orban: the man who makes Europe sing from within
“It's 100% him,” said one person who knows him well after looking at one of the rare photos found on Facebook of him with his face uncovered during a trip to Chad in October 2023 see is. So far, the discreet army officer Gaspar Orban, only son of the Hungarian nationalist prime minister (he has four daughters), is at just 32 years old at the center of the astonishing diplomatic-military offensive launched by the Hungarian nationalist prime minister in the Sahel. 200 Hungarian soldiers are to be sent to Chad in the coming months. This operation, unprecedented for Hungary, aims to “carry out advisory, assistance and surveillance tasks on the battlefield (…) and support the fight against terrorism,” says the mandate passed by the Hungarian Parliament in November.
This mission in an African country that has so far been far removed from Hungarian interests has been raising many questions in Budapest, but also in Paris, for months. France is still present with more than 1,000 troops in Chad, its last ally in the Sahel after the series of coups in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger led by soldiers who moved closer to Moscow. The French authorities are also aware that Mr Orban's son is directly involved in the Hungarian operation. However, Paris wants to believe that this mission will help stabilize this country in good agreement with the French armed forces, despite the close ties that Mr. Orban still maintains with Vladimir Putin. It is noteworthy that the Russian president received his Chadian counterpart in Moscow on January 24 and promised him that he would contribute to the stability of his country “by all possible means.”
“Necessary flexibility”
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