Hungary’s MPs might ordinarily hope to pack their bags in mid-June and head off to Lake Balaton to enjoy the delights of summer. Not this year.
July 21 marks 100 days since Viktor Orbán and his illiberal democrats were swept from power in Hungary, and 73 since the Péter Magyar-led government took office. During that period, the country’s institutions have witnessed a storm with few precedents.
The parliamentary spring session formally ended in mid-June, but extraordinary sittings are being held almost daily as the new government works around-the-clock to dismantle the last of its predecessor’s bastions.
This has only been possible because Magyar’s Tisza party won a two-thirds majority in the legislature, which hands it extraordinary powers to act, including through changes to the constitution. The result has been a full-frontal assault on the system Orbán had carefully crafted over the past 16 years.
That power forced the country’s head of state, President Tamás Sulyok, from office on July 19, and will also remove the head of the Constitutional Court. Both were important Orbán allies and could have disrupted the government’s plans.
As part of the so-called Operation Cleansing Fire, announced by Magyar, the new government began dismantling the long-standing state of emergency legal framework that Orbán’s administration had maintained, temporarily suspended the public broadcaster, and shut down the Sovereignty Protection Office. Established in 2024, the latter institution investigated foreign-funded activities and used this to target journalists, academics and civil society groups.
As old offices are dismantled, the government is creating new bodies, like the National Asset Protection and Recovery Office. Its main objective is to track unlawfully appropriated public assets and the recovery of what the government describes as squandered public funds.
Aware that he may be accused of a partisan power grab, Magyar has introduced other changes that will apply to him and other politicians. Parliament passed another set of changes to the constitution which established a term limit of two four-year mandates for the prime minister. Calculated retroactively from 1990, this bars Orbán from returning to power as prime minister, but will apply to all holders of the office.
The new constitutional amendments, adopted on July 13, will also retire judges aged over 70. That will remove four of the 15 Constitutional Court justices, including the body’s president. Sulyok was basically forced to sign his own death warrant; he did not resign but was ousted by the constitutional amendments he had virtually no choice but to sign.
The president argued that “the democratic rule of law in Hungary has come to an end”, and he even sought a legal opinion from the Venice Commission.
Magyar pledged consultation with all parties and citizens on the new president who, according to the prime minister, must be able to represent all Hungarians without any political affiliations. Not even a day after Sulyok was ousted, he officially recommended Hungarian chess grandmaster Judit Polgár, whose life is chronicled in a recent Netflix documentary, as a candidate. But this hasty decision, made in the absence of public consultation, caused an uproar and resulted in Polgár publicly announcing that she would not accept the nomination. So far, this is Magyar’s first public blow.
On the economic front, Hungary’s sluggish economy will reap some benefits from the government’s agreement to make reforms in exchange for more than €16bn ($17bn) in frozen EU funds. It was not only one of the major promises during the campaign but a vital sum that, if used smartly, can kickstart the country’s economic growth and development. Hungary has also joined the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, an EU body responsible for investigating financial crimes and misappropriation.
What about Orbán himself? He is watching, using his own words, this “arbitrary rule” from the US, where he and some family members have been attending the final three games of the World Cup.
His popularity has continued to plunge. According to the latest polls by Medián, one of Hungary’s most reliable pollsters, 69% of Hungarians would not want to see him in any important political position in the future.
Other senior members of the previous Fidesz administration have been seeking new roles. Gergely Gulyás, Fidesz parliamentary leader, has resigned, while former foreign minister Péter Szijjártó announced he would become external relations executive for the Chinese electric car maker, BYD.
Szijjártó, who was taped making offers of help to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, had previously co-signed many agreements between Hungary and BYD. The government has announced an inquiry into the appointment.
Hungary’s election spring clean provided a popular mandate to change the government; the summer has demonstrated just how seriously the new administration takes that role. The autumn, in order to keep the promises and maintain public support, should be about the return of accountability and economic growth.
Ferenc Németh is a Ph.D. candidate at Corvinus University of Budapest and a Fulbright visiting researcher at Georgetown University. He has previously conducted research in Toronto and Skopje, worked as a research fellow at the Hungarian Institute of International Affairs, and interned at EULEX Kosovo. His areas of expertise include Central and Southeast Europe, EU enlargement, and regional security. Ferenc was a Denton Fellow at CEPA in 2024.
Europe’s Edge is CEPA’s online journal covering critical topics on the foreign policy docket across Europe and North America. All opinions expressed on Europe’s Edge are those of the author alone and may not represent those of the institutions they represent or the Center for European Policy Analysis. CEPA maintains a strict intellectual independence policy across all its projects and publications.
