Hungary’s Magyar urges president to quit, vows to overhaul state media

Hungary’s Prime Minister-elect Peter Magyar has announced plans to overhaul state media and called for the country’s president to resign, as he moves to form a new government following his party’s landmark election victory.

Magyar’s Tisza (Respect and Freedom) ⁠party won a landslide victory in Sunday’s election, ending right-wing Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s 16 years in power.

Magyar announced on Wednesday in interviews with state media outlets that one of his first acts in government will be to suspend public media news broadcasts.

Making a rare appearance on state television, his first in a year and a half, he clashed with anchors he accused of years of biased coverage, later describing the interview on X as witnessing “the last days of a propaganda machine”.

In a Facebook post, Magyar said employees of public broadcaster MTVA had “worked under total intimidation and political terror”, and alleged that shortly after his interview.

“Every Hungarian deserves a public service media that broadcasts the truth,” Magyar said on Kossuth state radio.

“We will need a little time to pass a new media law, a new media authority and setting up the professional conditions for state media to actually do what it is meant to do.”

Orban’s government oversaw the near-disappearance of independent media, with a conglomerate backed by his allies now controlling more than 400 outlets across Hungary.

Magyar also met President Tamas Sulyok at the Alexander Palace in Budapest, and said in a post on social media that Sulyok was “unworthy to embody the unity of the Hungarian nation”, demanding he leave office once the new government is formed.

Magyar faces a pressing economic challenge alongside his political one. More than 16 billion euros ($19bn) in European Union COVID-19 pandemic recovery funding remains blocked over rule-of-law concerns, with an end-of-August deadline to meet Brussels’ conditions or risk losing the money.

Hungary’s incoming PM said he had already spoken with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and agreed to begin informal consultations before the government is formally constituted in May.

“I explained it clearly to her as well, and we have made it clear before, that ‌we can only comply with conditions that are good for Hungarian people, good for Hungarian businesses and, in general, for our country.”

He outlined four priority reform areas: anti-corruption measures including joining the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, restoring judicial independence, and rebuilding media and academic freedoms.

Analysts warn that the reform path will be complicated, with Orban loyalists entrenched across key public institutions.