On April 12, Hungary held parliamentary elections that all of Europe was watching. Right-wing populist Viktor Orban, who had held power for a combined 20 years, lost to the younger and more energetic Peter Magyar. Magyar’s Tisza party won a constitutional majority in parliament — 141 of 199 seats — giving it a broad mandate for reform. Magyar, who ran on pledges to restore democracy and strengthen ties with the European Union, has not yet taken office as prime minister — that is set to happen on May 9 — but has already made promises and weighed in on a wide range of domestic and foreign policy issues. Here is what he did in the first 10 days after his election victory.
Viktor Orban’s government began the process of withdrawing Hungary from the International Criminal Court in April 2025, shortly after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Budapest. The ICC had accused Netanyahu of war crimes in Gaza six months earlier, but Orban — who called the arrest warrant “brazen, cynical, and unacceptable” — refused to enforce it. Magyar said that under his government, Hungary would not only remain in the ICC but would arrest Netanyahu if he set foot in the country again.
EU leaders approved the loan in December 2025, but ahead of the formal vote in February 2026, Orban withdrew his consent, citing Ukraine’s closure of the southern branch of the Druzhba pipeline, through which Hungary and Slovakia receive Russian oil. The veto stalled disbursement of the loan, which is critically important to Ukraine. Magyar said he would not block the loan, though Hungary’s own funds would play no part in it.
On April 20, Magyar said that if the pipeline was ready to pump oil on the Ukrainian side, it should kindly be opened, as had been promised. The very next day, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that the Druzhba pipeline had been repaired, and on April 22 oil resumed flowing through it. The pipeline had been out of service since late January. Ukraine attributed the outage to a Russian drone strike but for some reason refused to grant European inspectors access to the site. Hungary and Slovakia suspected Kyiv of shutting the pipeline for political reasons.
Orban had long been regarded as Vladimir Putin’s closest ally in Europe. Even before the election, Magyar said that when choosing between East and West, Hungary should choose the West — meaning the European Union — but that its approach to Russia should be “pragmatic.” After the vote, Magyar reached for the same adjective when discussing future contacts with Moscow. The Kremlin echoed the word when commenting on relations with Hungary. Even so, Magyar’s victory — which Moscow declined to congratulate him on — is widely seen as a setback for the Kremlin.
Magyar said his government would amend Hungary’s constitution to bar any individual from serving as prime minister for more than two terms. The limit, he pledged, would apply to Orban as well — meaning Orban could not return to the post, having already been elected to it five times. Orban remains the leader of Fidesz, the second most popular party in Hungary, giving him continued influence over the country’s politics without holding the prime minister’s office.
Among the levers of influence Orban retains is the network of Fidesz loyalists placed in key positions across the country’s judicial and oversight bodies during its years in power — among them the prosecutor general, the presidents of the Supreme Court and the Constitutional Court, the head of the State Audit Office, and the president. Magyar called on “Orban’s puppets” to vacate their posts by May 31, warning that otherwise the Tisza Party would remove them using its constitutional majority in parliament. He singled out President Tamas Sulyok, saying he was “unworthy of representing the unity of the Hungarian nation” and should resign as soon as a new government was formed.
Another lever Orban built for himself is Hungary’s public media, which under his rule became de facto government mouthpieces. After his election victory, Magyar gave interviews to the public broadcaster Kossuth Radio and the television channel M1, clashing with hosts he accused of serving Orban’s interests and noting that he himself had not been invited on air once in the past year and a half. Magyar said he would suspend public media news broadcasts and pass a new media law — one of the reforms he committed to carrying out in order to unfreeze EU funds for Hungary.
Even before taking office as prime minister, Magyar spoke with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. Because of Orban’s disputes with Brussels, Hungary has in recent years forfeited roughly 17 billion euros in EU support, including about 10 billion euros in post-pandemic recovery funds. The release of those 10 billion euros is tied to reforms whose deadline falls at the end of August. Unfreezing EU funds was one of Magyar’s central campaign promises, and he plans to move quickly on the reforms.
In 2025, the Slovak parliament made it a criminal offense to challenge the Benes decrees. Not wanting to damage his relationship with Fico, Orban responded to this fairly mildly. Magyar seized on the issue, criticizing Orban for failing to defend the rights of Hungarians abroad. After speaking with Fico following his election victory, Magyar demanded that Slovakia repeal the penalties for those who challenge the Benes decrees. Fico has so far shown no willingness to comply.
Magyar has already named some of the ministers in his future cabinet and announced that the number of ministries will grow from 12 to 16. Among the additions will be a separate Education Ministry and Health Ministry, neither of which has existed in the Hungarian government since at least 2010. Orban’s still-serving cabinet has state secretaries for education and health, but both operate within the Internal Affairs Ministry.
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