Some elections are more important than others. Since taking office in May, Hungary’s new prime minister, Péter Magyar, has embarked upon the country’s most far-reaching and dramatic programme of transformation since the fall of communism in 1989. Mr Magyar’s predecessor, Viktor Orbán, established a soft autocracy which thrived on corruption and, over 16 years, exerted its grip on most areas of Hungarian life, from religion to culture and the media. It is being dismantled at extraordinary pace.
Last week, a newly appointed president took office following the sacking of Tamás Sulyok, accused by Mr Magyar of having rubber-stamped the erosion of the rule of law in the country. In stark contrast, András Baka is a former president of Hungary’s supreme court, a role he was removed from by the Orbán regime in an action judged unlawful by the European court of human rights.
On Hungary’s national day last Thursday, news bulletins returned to the main state television channel, having been shut down for six weeks. In July, viewers had encountered a blank screen along with the message: “Public media should not lie. We are sorry for doing it for so long.” Ending naked bias on state TV was one of Mr Magyar’s key pledges, in a campaign that saw him buck an electoral system weighted in favour of Mr Orbán and win a landslide.
The tempo has been equally relentless when it comes to attacking networks of corruption and clientelism built up over a decade and a half. Well over €100bn in public funds, including billions of euros of EU money, is believed to have been siphoned off during the Orbán years. Investigators have been empowered to go after it via a new National Asset Recovery and Protection Office. Mr Magyar has also confirmed Hungarian participation in the European public prosecutor’s office, enabling the EU to better protect itself from financial crime in the country.
It will take time for Hungary to feel like a normal pluralist European democracy again. For now, Mr Magyar is functioning as a one-man political whirlwind, heading what amounts to a national unity government elected by voters across the political spectrum. Concerns have been raised over constitutional manoeuvring to ensure many MPs in Mr Orbán’s Fidesz party cannot stand again, and Mr Baka has warned against appearing to take revenge on the former prime minister’s supporters. But a root-and-branch approach to de-Orbánising Hungary was what was needed, and continues to be rewarded by record levels of popularity in polls.
The next major threshold is likely to be crossed in the autumn. Brussels has given Hungary’s new government until the end of this month to demonstrate that enough is being done on corruption to warrant the release of over €10bn in frozen funds. If, as seems likely, the vast majority of the funds are disbursed, it will seal the ongoing rapprochement between the EU and its former rogue member state.
In May, Mr Magyar relocated the prime minister’s office away from a controversially cordoned-off former Carmelite monastery used by Mr Orbán, opening the building up to the public. “I was not elected simply to change the government, but to change the regime,” he had told interviewers soon after taking power. Three months on, the symbolism is being supplemented by a peaceful political revolution.
