Hungary's New Leader Promised To Get Rid Of Them In A Meeting With State Media And The Country's President
7- 15.04.2026, 19:12
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According to him, the propagandists have done incredible damage to the Hungarian people.
Peter Magyar, leader of Hungary's election-winning Tisza party, did not delay in fulfilling his promise to dismantle Viktor Orban's system of "illiberal democracy." On the third day after his victory, he met with his remaining opponents - the government-controlled state media, where he had been barred from entering for the past year and a half, and the president of Hungary, Orbán's protégé. To all of them, Magyar bluntly declared that their days are numbered.
Magyar accused President Tamas Szujok and the state media of being immoral accomplices to Orban and his Fidesz party, who have built a system based on nepotism, corruption, impunity and hate speech. In two interviews given to state radio and television, Magyar compared their activities to propaganda in North Korea and Nazi Germany, pointing to the widespread dissemination of disinformation. Shuyok, on the other hand, Magyar said, has demonstrated moral failure and cannot remain in office. During a visit to the president's office, Magyar demanded that he resign after the new government is sworn in, Bloomberg reported.
Hungary's president is elected by parliament, and Fidesz appointed Szujok to the post two years ago. Before that, he spent eight years heading the Constitutional Court, which Orban, in power for 16 years, brought under his control. The opposition has called Szujok and the presidents before him "signature machines" on decisions made by the Orban regime. According to Magyar, Szujok said he would "consider" the demand for his resignation.
"I told him that if he doesn't leave, we will amend the constitution," Magyar explained. "Tisa won a constitutional majority of two-thirds of the seats in parliament following the election results.
The president also agreed to speed up the procedure for approving the new government. According to the constitution, the last day for this is May 12 (one month after election day). The government is likely to be formed on May 6-7, Magyar said.
He told state media journalists that their broadcasting would be halted. It will resume after a reorganization to make state news services truly public organizations. In a radio interview, subjected to constant attacks by the host (who had previously been much more courteous to Orbán), Magyar responded with harsh criticism. He claimed that the latter represented an organization that sowed fear and despair among the population:
"You have done incredible damage to the Hungarian people - struck fear into the hearts of children, grandparents, the elderly. This is not about me. This is about the right of every Hungarian to a state media that broadcasts the truth."
According to a Republikon Institute study published in February, Magyar was portrayed in a negative light 96 percent of the time on the evening news of the state television channel M1 over the past year. Orbán was mentioned in a positive context 95% of the time. In a statement to Bloomberg just before the election, the state communications regulator cited "procedural rules" that prevented it from providing objective coverage of political events.
Magyar also said he would return to state ownership stakes in the country's two largest companies, oil company MOL and pharmaceutical company Gedeon Richter. Orban has given these stakes to a foundation dedicated to promoting his ideology of "illiberal democracy."
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