Has Hungarian PM Viktor Orbán made a statement claiming that the new Bulgarian government, which assumed office on June 6, 2023, is a Soros coup and that as a result, Bulgarians will officially be at war with Russia within a month? No, that's not true: Orbán did not make such a statement. The assertion stems from a post originating from a website notorious for disseminating and manufacturing false information. The TikTok video, in which the claim is propagated, features accompanying text that includes a link to the website, article, and news source that do not prove the claim.
The claim appeared in a video on TikTik (archived here) published by @rositsageorgieva79 on June 8, 2023.
The title (translated to English by Lead Stories staff) : Are the sheep still sleeping?
The Bulgarian text overlay reads:
Orbán: Soros's coup was carried out in Bulgaria today! Let the Bulgarians know that in a month they will be officially at war with Russia.
The mentioned website article from the link states:
Целта е да се намеси държава от НАТО за да стане конфликта глобален!
Българите ще бъдат жертвани!
Това предаде националната Унгарска телевизия.
Which our team translated from Bulgarian as:
The goal is to involve a NATO country to make the conflict global.
The Bulgarians will be sacrificed!
This was reported by the national Hungarian TV.
Such information cannot be found on the Hungarian nationwide public television website - Magyar Televízió.
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Thu Jun 22 12:06:14 2023 UTC)
The claim presented in the TikTok video can also be found on Facebook and Twitter. The posts shared on social media platforms, including their structure and content, closely mirror the article linked in the TikTok video.
No posts verifying the claims can be found on Orbán's Twitter page, and no official information or evidence is available to support such claims. A search for the phrase "В България днес се извърши преврат на Сорос!" using Google News' index of thousands of credible news sites did not return any results.
The website associated with the dissemination of fake news raises concerns due to the absence of contact information and its appearance in 2023. The articles published on the website lack clear origins and credible sources to support their content. Notably, the earliest article available on the website dates back to May 27, 2023.
Similar messages suggesting that Bulgaria will be directly involved in a war with Russia circulate not only in the media but also in the Bulgarian political sphere. What these messages have in common are strongly expressed pro-Russian views, catering to complicated cultural and historical ties between Russia and Bulgaria, to influence public opinion in various ways.
The name of the Hungarian Prime Minister is frequently involved and exploited in Bulgaria to spread anti-European and anti-NATO disinformation. An article from June 6, 2023, shows that Orbán is quite popular among Bulgarians, due to his extreme and pro-Russian views. The survey indicates that Orban is more favored in Bulgaria than in Hungary, and this information is frequently exploited by pro-Russian channels in Bulgaria to spread misleading or false information.
