Monday’s session of the Hungarian parliament was dominated by President András Baka’s unusual pre-agenda address, boycotts by opposition parties and warnings over trust in some of the country’s key institutions. Prime Minister Péter Magyar later defended his government’s first months in office and pledged to review disputed state contracts and recover public assets where wrongdoing is established.
Opposition parties boycott Baka’s address
Political tensions were evident before President András Baka began speaking. MPs from opposition Fidesz and its Christian Democratic ally KDNP stayed away from the chamber, saying they did not recognise Baka as a legitimate president following the removal of his predecessor, Tamás Sulyok.
Our Homeland (Mi Hazánk) also boycotted the address, although for a different reason. Deputy group leader Előd Novák said the party was protesting a House Committee decision preventing MPs from responding to Baka’s speech or putting questions to the president.
The dispute comes amid Hungary’s transformed political landscape following the April general election, which ended 16 years of Fidesz-led government and brought Péter Magyar’s Tisza party to power with a two-thirds parliamentary majority.
Baka warns over trust in Hungary’s prosecution service
Baka focused his intervention on two major institutional questions: the election of Hungary’s next chief public prosecutor and recent amendments concerning the Constitutional Court.
The president said choosing a new chief prosecutor was not merely a personnel decision, but one affecting the future of the prosecution service and the rule of law.
He argued that every democratic state needed a prosecution service that was professionally credible, institutionally independent and trusted by citizens to act impartially.
“Today that trust does not exist. It must be restored,” Baka said.
He added that the prosecution service’s reputation had reached a low point, partly because the “perceived or actual political ties” of some officials had raised doubts about its independence. Baka also referred to a public perception that criminal justice had previously stopped “above a certain level”.
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Constitutional Court changes also draw criticism
Baka also expressed reservations about recent amendments to the Constitutional Court Act, despite signing the legislation.
He stressed that the Constitutional Court should command broad confidence among the public, the legal profession and political actors, and argued that the nomination of judges should include safeguards allowing professional and civil-society perspectives to be considered alongside political ones.
Baka also questioned provisions setting out how the Constitutional Court elects its president from among its members. He said the institution’s autonomy would have been better served by leaving the matter to the court’s own internal rules.
Magyar says Hungary is a ‘functioning country’
Prime Minister Péter Magyar’s subsequent speech combined a broader message about national solidarity with a defence of his government’s record since taking office.
Magyar described Hungary as a “functioning country” and said the country would not again allow itself to be “misled, abandoned or betrayed”. He highlighted the government’s first 133 days, citing measures on family benefits, household energy costs and public spending, while also rejecting warnings previously voiced by political opponents about the consequences of a Tisza government.
One of Magyar’s strongest arguments concerned EU funding. His government reached an agreement with the European Commission in May to unlock EUR 16.4 billion in previously frozen recovery and cohesion funds. Hungary subsequently said it had fulfilled the conditions required to access EUR 10 billion from the EU recovery facility.
Magyar promises reviews of disputed contracts
The prime minister also expanded on one of his government’s central political themes: recovering public assets and scrutinising deals concluded under previous governments.
Magyar said it should become a “national minimum” that assets belonging to Hungarians must be returned to them. He called for all disputed contracts to be reviewed and said the state should enforce the public interest wherever legal violations are established.
Addressing Fidesz and KDNP MPs, Magyar accused circles linked to the former governing parties of having taken public assets worth tens of trillions of forints. This was a political allegation made by the prime minister; establishing criminal wrongdoing in individual cases is a matter for the relevant authorities and courts.
He also argued that savings from what his government regarded as wasteful or disproportionate contracts should instead be channelled towards families and restoring order to the public finances.
Media Council appointments move forward
Away from the main speeches, parliament’s culture committee also backed media lawyer Gábor Polyák to head Hungary’s Media Council, alongside six candidates for membership.
Polyák told the committee that his vision was one of “peace in the media”, with a public sphere in which different opinions have a genuine opportunity to be heard.
Monday’s session therefore brought several of Hungary’s post-election institutional debates together in one place: the future of the prosecution service, the Constitutional Court, media regulation and the review of contracts inherited from the previous government. Decisions taken in these areas are likely to remain central to political debate as the new administration moves beyond its first months in office.
As we wrote earlier, Hungary scraps EUR 73 billion motorway deal linked to Orbán-era allies, launches criminal complaints
UPDATE: 🔄Péter Magyar: We do not consider Zoltán Szathmáry’s election as Chief Public Prosecutor a foregone conclusion
“We do not consider the election of Zoltán Szathmáry, nominated by the Head of State, as Chief Public Prosecutor to be a foregone conclusion on the part of the Tisza faction,” PM Magyar stated on Monday during a press conference held in Parliament.
Magyar said that they respect the Head of State’s right to make the nomination. He stated that the Tisza faction had not yet reached a final decision on the matter, “but based on the preliminary information available to us and the information we have received, I can say at this stage that we do not consider it certain that Mr Zoltán Szatmári, the prosecutor nominated by the President of the Republic, will be able to secure either a two-thirds majority or a simple majority of support from the Tisza parliamentary group.”
Péter Magyar promised:
“The final decision will be announced after the parliamentary group meeting and ‘following an examination of further information’. But if you ask me now, we do not see any chance of the Tisza parliamentary group electing the nominee”
— he said.
President András Baka announced on Monday that he was nominating Zoltán Szathmáry for the post of Prosecutor General.
