The Socialists’ retreat is allegedly due to a wave of anonymous letters, most likely written by former communist secret agents. The proposal the party finally submitted as a draft law says that national security services can decide which cases involve classified information, which should be kept secret from publicity.

Initially, MSZP proposed to make public the personal identification data of every former secret agent, operative staff and other employees of the Interior Ministry’s No. 3 division. However, the latest proposal calls for publicizing data only on those people whose personal files have been transferred to the Historic Registry Office, and it allows that even such files can be classified confidential if the Highest Court approves the request of a national security service.

Historian László Varga said he believes the MSZP watered down its original proposal on request from the national security services. He added that the influence of the services should be terminated, and the Hungarian state should take possession of all pre-1990 national security files. In 1995 Varga was involved in screening documents of the Interior Ministry’s archives. The investigation was suspended after four months, when some MSZP members felt that the data to be unveiled might harm them. Varga said investigations and the currently ongoing lawmaking should not be aimed at vetting currently active politicians, but the proper management of sensitive information.

It is believed that more information is stored at the various national security services than the Registry Office have been notified of. It is highly probable that the services have retained information with possibly serious impact on some people, so that the information can be put into use to serve the services’ interests when they so please.