The First 24 Hours After Orbán's Defeat: Magyar Suspends State News Broadcasting and Accuses Szijjártó of Destroying Documents

Less than a full day after his party, Tisza, won 138 of the 199 seats in the Hungarian parliament according to the near-complete count, Péter Magyar moved from election victory to offensive. At a press conference in Budapest on Monday, he announced a series of steps suggesting that the transfer of power after sixteen years of Viktor Orbán's rule will not go smoothly. Al Jazeera ↗

In the middle of the press conference, before hundreds of journalists, Magyar interrupted his remarks to read out a message he had just received. According to it, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó — who had not been heard from since election night — arrived at the ministry building that morning and, together with his associate Eszter Gyarmati, was "destroying materials on a large scale." According to Bloomberg, these are primarily documents related to the European Union's sanctions negotiations. The claim has not been independently verified, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not immediately comment. Bloomberg ↗

Magyar claims the materials could shed light on communication between the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Russian officials during the years when Orbán repeatedly threatened to veto or delayed EU sanctions packages against Moscow. Similar destruction of documents, he says, is also taking place at other state offices. Bloomberg ↗

Another controversial move is the plan to suspend broadcasting by Hungary's public media until the new government ensures their impartiality. Over sixteen years, Orbán systematically subordinated public media to the government line — according to an RFE/RL investigation, the state news agency MTI routinely edited its coverage in favor of Fidesz. The European Parliament warned the European Commission as early as the beginning of April about "serious risks" to media freedom in Hungary. Euronews ↗

Magyar also promised Poland that Budapest would extradite two prosecuted opposition politicians to whom Orbán's government had granted asylum. One of them is Marcin Romanowski, a former deputy justice minister charged with eleven criminal offenses, including manipulation of public procurement. Orbán granted him asylum despite a European arrest warrant, which Warsaw described as a violation of the principle of loyal cooperation within the EU. "We will not be a refuge for internationally wanted criminals," Magyar declared. Euronews ↗ Bloomberg ↗

Magyar called for the resignation of President Tamás Sulyok — whom he considers Orbán's puppet — as well as the heads of the Supreme Court, the Constitutional Court, the Competition Authority, and the media regulator. "Let them leave. Let them not wait for us to send them away," he said. He wants to take office as prime minister on May 5 and has asked the president to urgently convene the constitutive session of parliament. Euronews ↗

He named visits to Warsaw and Vienna as his first foreign trips, after which he will head to Brussels. There, he wants to negotiate the release of frozen European funds — roughly twenty billion euros from cohesion funds and the recovery fund — for which Budapest must fulfill rule-of-law reforms. Magyar announced Hungary's accession to the European Public Prosecutor's Office, a step Orbán had refused for years. Euronews ↗

The Kremlin reacted unusually sharply to the transfer of power in Budapest. Spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated that Russia would not congratulate Magyar. "We do not send congratulations to hostile countries. And Hungary is a hostile country — it supports sanctions against us," Peskov said. He added, however, that Moscow "respects the choice of Hungarian voters" and expects "pragmatic contacts" with the new government. Some analysts had called Orbán's Hungary the Kremlin's biggest ally in the EU — Magyar plans to end this era, though he simultaneously promises "pragmatic relations" with Moscow. France 24 ↗

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk reacted to the election results with the words "Back together! A glorious victory, dear friends!" and added in Hungarian: "Russians, go home!" European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen wrote that "Hungary has chosen Europe." German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said he looks forward to cooperation and expects that joint decisions in the EU will now be easier. Al Jazeera ↗



Magyar faces a paradox. Some of his first steps — suspending state news broadcasting, demanding the resignation of judicial officials — resemble the methods for which Orbán's government was criticized. The difference lies in the context: Orbán filled these institutions with loyalists, while Magyar argues they need to be rebuilt in terms of personnel and institutions precisely so that they can function independently. Whether this can be achieved without the new government itself undermining institutional independence will be a key question in the coming months.