Listen: Is the new Hungarian prime minister Péter Magyar delivering on his promises?

Production: By Europod, in co-production with Sphera Network.

EUobserver is proud to have an editorial partnership with Europod to co-publish the podcast series “Briefed” hosted by Léa Marchal. The podcast is available on all major platforms.

Find the full transcript below:

Today, I’m bringing a special episode recorded in Paris together with Kata Olha, editorial manager for the Hungarian media 444, which is an independent media outlet created in 2013 and is part of the Sphera network together with Europod.

So, I invited Kata to talk about the first three months of Péter Magyar in office. Is the new prime minister delivering on his promises? What are his next political battles? We discuss it with Kata.

So Péter Magyar has now been in office for three months. For those who are not so familiar, he kicked Orbán out of power, who had been prime minister for 16 years.

Magyar won the election after promising to end corruption, to restore the rule of law, and to make a complete break with the Orbán regime, even though he was previously a member of the same party, Fidesz.

So Kata, from the Brussels point of view, Magyar started to deliver on his promises. He lifted the Hungarian veto on the loan for Ukraine and presented some reforms to unblock the frozen EU funds dedicated to Hungary.

Are we right to think so far that everything is going according to plan?

Yeah, well, partially, but it’s still very early to say that.

But yes, in his campaign, he made several big promises, actually. The most headline-grabbing ones are what you mentioned, like restoring the rule of law and democratic institutions in Hungary, which were demolished by the Orbán regime.

And in these areas, actually, he has moved very quickly.

The government has already begun to prepare some constitutional reforms. They proposed new term limits for prime ministers and also new terms for several MPs. No prime minister can rule for more than two terms.

They also launched some anti-corruption initiatives. They started to dismantle some institutions that were directly built by the Orbán regime.

One of them is the Sovereignty Office, whose job was actually to undermine independent media. So that’s a really important one for us. It doesn’t exist anymore.

Also, he promised to tackle corruption. Do you think he’s serious about it, or was he mostly campaigning? I remember some people, when he was running, accusing him of having maybe benefited from the Orbán corrupt regime.

Yes, actually, he was the leader of the Hungarian Student Loan Center before. So he was practically part of the state apparatus for many years.

Well, yes, he did promise to actively fight corruption. They already launched this National Asset Protection and Recovery Office, which is responsible for anti-corruption investigations.

Right now, they have started to focus on investigating corruption under the Orbán regime and all the abuses of public office.

But is there confidence that, in the long run, he will keep up the work?

Yeah, it depends on who you’re asking.

I’m asking you.

Yeah, there are some reasons for confidence. As I said, he really has moved forward with some of his promises.

But the economic reality in Hungary is very challenging. Some promises are very ambitious. And expectations are really high after 16 years of the Orbán regime.

There are budgetary constraints, and we don’t know yet whether there can be lasting institutional change and successful prosecutions, or whether there can be real economic growth while maintaining fiscal stability.

I’d like to address a specific topic, which is press freedom. Under Orbán, independent media have slowly been killed. We used to label all the remaining press as propaganda.

What did Magyar promise to restore? Did he promise to restore media plurality and press freedom? And what is he doing?

Well, yes, he made strong promises on that, actually, like reforming public media.

The government has already introduced legislation on restructuring the current media holding, re-establishing the national news agency, creating a public media committee, and introducing a public media council that will oversee public service standards and state advertising, and so on.

So yes, that’s a step forward.

And you can really feel that the government’s rhetoric toward the press and independent media has completely changed.

It’s a very big thing that the attacks, smear campaigns, and the whole very intimidating atmosphere we lived in over the last few years has completely changed, at least for now.

So yes, you can be a much happier independent journalist in Hungary now, actually.

It sounds like he’s actually delivering results.

Yes, but still, ownership hasn’t really changed. A large share of Hungary’s television stations, newspapers, radio networks, and online outlets remain privately owned by individuals or foundations aligned with the previous government.

Transforming public broadcasters into truly independent institutions is, I think, a process that will take many years.