Acting quickly to consolidate his power and remake the political scene, Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Magyar detonated several political bombs in a single day on April 15.

First we gave a televised interview and told the pro-Orban state TV he was shutting it down, calling it a “factory of lies” and “not telling the people the truth” under his predecessor. Magyar went on to meet with Hungarian President Tamas Sulyok, who he told to quit immediately or face forced expulsion. Finally, he said that Budapest would continue to veto the release of a €90bn EU loan for Ukraine until oil flows from via the Druzhba pipeline resume.

Magyar was swept to power with a landslide victory on April 12 that handed him a constitutional majority of two thirds, putting his Tisza party in complete control of the country.

Going into the elections he warned that he would undo many of the reforms made by his predecessor Viktor Orban and sack the placeholders in government from the Fidesz party.

Lifting Hungary's veto on the blocked Ukraine loan is amongst the most urgent business as Kyiv is running out of money and faces macroeconomic collapse without fresh funding soon. Magyar said he will vote through the EU loan once the Druzhba pipeline resumes operations.

Supplies were halted in January after a drone attack damaged the pipeline, which Orban blamed on Ukraine and blocked the release of the funding. Magyar has taken the same line as Orban: “no oil, no money.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on April 14 that the pipeline is now repaired and flows would resume by the end of April, but not at full capacity.

Following a meeting with President Tamas Sulyok, Magyar said Hungary's new parliament would likely meet on May 6 or 7.

"The​President has informed me that he will ​ask me at the inaugural session of ⁠the ​new parliament ​to be Prime Minister ​and form a government, as the leader ​of ⁠the party that got the ⁠most votes," Magyar said.

President out

Magyar took an equally blunt line in a meeting with Hungary's President Tamas Sulyok: he told him to voluntarily leave his office or Tisza would use its super-majority in parliament to force the president out.

Sulyok is widely seen as an Orban ally and as president has the power to veto laws that would stymie the sweeping changes that Magyar has promised to make.

Magyar said in a social media post: “I have arrived at the Sandor Palace to meet the President of Hungary. [Tamas Sulyok] is unworthy of representing the unity of the Hungarian nation. He is unfit to serve as the guardian of legality. He is not fit to serve as a moral authority or a role model. Following the formation of the new government, Tamas Sulyok must leave office immediately.”

Sulyok became President of Hungary in 2024, nominated by Orban’s ruling Fidesz party, which holds a parliamentary majority. Before that, he served as President of the Constitutional Court, a role he held since 2016 after also being elected with Fidesz backing. The Hungarian presidency is largely ceremonial, but it carries influence through signing laws, referring legislation to the Constitutional Court, and symbolic leadership.

Magyar is keen to avoid the problems faced by Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk who is pursuing a liberalisation agenda but is being blocked by Polish president Karol Nawrocki, who is aligned with the opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party and has tied up a lot of Tusk’s legislation by sending it to the constitutional court for review.

Magyar said in comments after meeting the president: “If he does not leave voluntarily, we will use the mandate given to us by the voters. Through constitutional amendments and the necessary legal changes, we will remove him from office. We will remove him and all the other puppets appointed by the Orban system.”

State TV shut

Magyar did not pull his punches during a live interview with the state TV station M1 for the first time, which was another tool used by the popularist Orban to control the media message and promote his own image in the country.

“What has been happening here since 2010 would have made even Goebbels or North Korean dictators blush. No truthful word has been spoken,” he said in the M1 interview.

“We will suspend this channel's news service. This isn't about me; I'm not seeking revenge. Our people deserve journalism that reflects the truth,” Magyar told the host.

Undoing the corruption

Magyar also announced a wide-reaching programme of renationalisation and confiscation of assets deemed to have been given away “for nothing” to state affiliated companies and Orban’s cronies. As IntelliNews reported, Hungary has been considered the most corrupt country in Europe for several years.

“We will nationalize the assets given to businesspeople and foundations during the Orban era,” said Magyar.

Amongst the most glaring deals, the Mathias Corvinus Collegium Foundation, a think tank close to Orban, was gifted 10% of the state-owned oil giant MOL and pharmaceutical company Gedeon Richter for free. “We will take back these shares,” said Magyar. In 2020, the MCC was also granted government funds and assets with a total value of approximately €1.4bn, Brussels Signal reports.

Magyar went on to ridicule some of M1’s more extreme reporting lines, promoted by Orban administration in an echo of Putin’s style of media manipulation, hyping up traditional family values” or blaming everything on the billionaire philanthropist George Soros.

“According to you, Germany has collapsed, there's no internet there, people aren't even having sex. The Hungarian people were laughing at you,” said Magyar. “It was said on this channel that even my young children won't talk to me, when in fact my children live with me.”

When the host tried to interrupt him, he shot back: “No host in this studio ever dared to interrupt Hungary's most corrupt and most lying prime minister.”

He went on to describe a sweeping programme to undo many of the abuses put in place by Orban.

“We will bring back the EU funds. We will join the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, create a national asset recovery authority, and implement other anti-corruption measures.”

“We will make the investigative authorities and judiciary independent,” he said.

“We will also restore academic freedom, returning universities to scholars and research institutes to researchers. We will use EU funds for infrastructure, energy efficiency, and healthcare — not for oligarchs or party loyalists.”

Currently Magyar remains Prime Minister elect but hopes his new government will be sworn in by early May.