Some 40,000 fireworks were due to be launched in Budapest on Saturday evening to mark St Stephen’s Day, a national holiday celebrating the formation of the Hungarian nation.

However, following an extreme weather warning from Hungary’s National Meteorological Service (NMS), they were postponed for a week.

Despite the warning, conditions remained calm over Budapest throughout Saturday, with the forecasted thunderstorms and powerful winds hitting parts of eastern Hungary instead.

The incorrect forecast caused fury, with pro-government online newspaper Origo accusing the NMS of providing “misleading information about the extent of the bad weather, which misled the operation team responsible for security.”

Innovation Minister Laszlo Palkovics fired NMS President Kornelia Radics and her deputy Gyula Horvath, on Monday.

The NMS released an official apology on its Facebook page, saying that what took place was the “least likely” outcome based on the data they had.

They said there is “a factor of uncertainty inherent” within the metrological profession.

Speaking to Newsweek, a spokesperson for the Hungarian Government said the decision to fire Radics and Horvath was taken before the August 20 forecast.

They said: “The Government has fully accepted and supported the position of Minister of Technology and Industry Laszlo Palkovics regarding the dismissal of the president and deputy president of the National Meteorological Service (OMSZ).

“These leadership changes would have taken place regardless of the 20 August forecast, so although the OMSZ’s predictions for the 20th of August proved spectacularly wrong, the dismissal is based on longer-term dissatisfaction. This was not the last straw—it was already the straw after the very last.”

Andras Fekete-Gyor, a prominent Hungarian liberal politician, said the meteorologists’ firings is another example of authoritarianism from the government of Viktor Orban.

On Facebook, he posted: “They couldn’t produce the desired weather, they were fired. No, it’s not a dictatorship in Central Asia, it’s the Hungary of Fidesz.”

Fidesz, the Hungarian ruling party, promotes what Orban called “Christian illiberal democracy,” though it started out as a liberal anti-communist student movement formed in 1988.

The fireworks display was already controversial before the postponement, with nearly 200,000 signing a petition condemning it as “a useless waste of money” and calling for it to be canceled.

Critics argued the event would be inappropriate whilst the Hungarian economy was struggling, and neighboring Ukraine under attack from Russia.

Sensitivities are particularly high as in 2006, St Stephen’s Day celebrations were hit by a powerful storm, leaving five dead and hundreds injured.

The dangerous weather caused chaos amongst the hundreds-of-thousands who were lining the Danube, waiting for the festivities. Most of the casualties were caused by roof tiles, and other debris, being blown into the crowd below.

The National Meteorological Service has been contacted for comment.

Orban has been accused of governing in an increasingly authoritarian style, with the pro-democracy Freedom House think tank saying his government used its legal and economic strength to “silence critical journalists and bolster friendly news outlets.”

In April Orban’s right-wing Fidesz party won re-election, taking 53 percent of the vote and 133 seats in parliament out of a possible 199.

Orban has become well connected to parts of the pro-Trump right in the United States.

Earlier this month he received a warm reception when he addressed the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Dallas.

The Hungarian leader hit out at an “invasion of illegal migrants,” saying “globalists can all go to hell.”

Update 8/24/22 02:10 a.m. ET: This story has been updated with comment from the Hungarian Government.