The son of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán designed a proposed military deployment to Chad based on religious conviction and anticipated that half the deployed troops would die, according to a serving army captain who confronted him about the plan.
Gáspár Orbán, who studied alongside Captain Szilveszter Pálinkás at Britain's prestigious Sandhurst Military Academy, told his former classmate that "God spoke to him from heaven" commanding him to "save African Christians," Pálinkás revealed in <link url='https://telex.hu/video/2026/04/02/palinkas-szilveszter-interju-honvedseg-katonasag-orban-gaspar-szalay-bobrovniczky-kristof-csad'>an interview with Telex</link> published Thursday.
The extraordinary revelation exposes the extent to which personal connections to Hungary's ruling family influence military planning in the NATO member state. The proposed mission to Chad, approved by parliament in November 2023, would deploy 200 Hungarian troops to the politically unstable Sahel region for what officials described as counter-terrorism operations.
According to Pálinkás, Orbán shared strategic planning details during their conversations. "He told me that during the mission he calculated a fifty percent combat effectiveness loss. Which means that fifty percent of the Hungarian soldiers would die in the mission he was leading," the captain stated.
When Pálinkás attempted to dissuade him with professional military arguments about the unacceptable risk to Hungarian lives, Orbán reportedly responded: "To become an advanced, experienced army, we will gain experience with blood."
The 31-year-old son of the prime minister served as a liaison officer for the Chad deployment despite holding only the rank of lieutenant at the time planning began. Defense Minister Kristóf Szalay-Bobrovniczky justified Orbán's involvement by citing his "special qualifications, legal knowledge and language skills."
