Prime Minister Péter Magyar announced the launch of a far-reaching “purge operation” in Parliament on Monday, declaring a mission to “free Hungary” from what called a “mafia” that operated under the government of Viktor Orbán.
“Not odinary criminals”
“We will free Hungarians from the political and economic mafia that has plundered our country, threatened its citizens and made their lives unbearable,” Péter Magyar said in an address before the parliamentary agenda. The prime minister vowed to take decisive and uncompromising action across all sectors, “whether it be political parties, lawmakers, public institutions, media outlets, economic elites, corrupt politicians or oligarchs”.
Drawing a parallel with Italy’s struggle against the mafia, Magyar recounted how the assassinations of an anti-mafia judge and a prosecutor 34 years ago shocked Italy into action. “They weren’t fighting ordinary criminals, but were up against a network that knew no mercy,” he said. “They had their people in the parties, parliament, the government, local councils, businesses, state institutions, the media and everywhere. It was a network that plundered the country.”
“But there’s a major difference between Italy and ourselves, because we will not allow Hungarian society to endure such a traumatic awakening,” Péter Magyar said. “Nor will we allow the mafia to continue strangling, suffocating and robbing Hungary for decades to come.” He said that with the mandate given to the Tisza Party in the election, the government “today embarks on the path to ridding Hungary of the mafia”. He cast June 22 as a date of historic significance, comparable to the April 12 election.
This day will be Hungary’s D-Day
“If we succeed, this day will be Hungary’s D-Day, the moment when, after years of drift, the Hungarian people finally … begin the long-overdue task of taking their country back.” The “purge operation”, he said, marked “the end for an era in which Hungary was held hostage by organised political and economic criminal networks”. Magyar described the operation as a “comprehensive political, economic and legal operation aimed at freeing the country from the deep-seated corruption and the suffocating grip of the mafia”, one of whose most important components would be the National Asset Recovery and Protection Office.
“Severing the tentacles of the Orban mafia will be an extraordinarily difficult task,” Péter Magyar said, adding that the creation of the National Asset Recovery Office alone would require amendments to 47 separate laws. “The targets of this operation are resilient, persistent and potentially aggressive,” Magyar said. “And because this criminal network didn’t take shape overnight, it won’t be dismantled overnight either.”
30-70 percent kickback deals
Tracing its origins back to the 1990s, Magyar insisted that the “network” had expanded through “privatisation schemes, oil trade scandals, corrupt 30-70 percent kickback deals between Fidesz and the former left-wing parties, and even the corrupt networks involved in the maintenance of public parks”. “Today, we set out on this path. We will defeat the Hungarian Cosa Nostra, step by step, brick by brick, criminal by criminal,” he declared.
Reflecting on the 40 days since his government took office, Péter Magyar painted a grim picture of the scale of corruption uncovered so far. “Every investigation reveals new layers of abuse. There is no state institution, no economic sector, no movable or immovable asset, no street corner, and no rooftop that the failed Orban regime did not touch or looted,” he said.
Among the examples he cited were the alleged scandal relating to the Hatvanpuszta estate, “overpriced and unnecessary ventilators”, the 10-billion forint Brussels Hungarian House, “billions spent on propaganda, motorway concessions, private equity funds, and the vast fortunes” amassed by former ministers, and Orban’s family.
President Sulyok puppet of a failed regime
“The mob boss wasn’t satisfied with … plundering Hungary. He wanted every institution and branch of power — and appointed Tamás Sulyok President of the Republic,” Magyar said. Magyar quoted the letter of congratulations Sulyok wrote to him as prime minister and said it was “a pity he had not written a poem to his boss [former PM Viktor Orbán], as some had done to Stalin in the 1950s”.
He accused Sulyok of being a “puppet of the failed regime”. He said Sulyok had “asked the Constitutional Court to block a constitutional amendment that isn’t even known yet”. “Tamas Sulyok, the puppet of the failed regime, turned to another puppet of that same regime to obstruct the implementation of the democratic mandate given by millions of Hungarians,” he said.
Magyar accused Sulyok of not only “failing to prevent a constitutional coup” but of actively attempting one himself, only for it to collapse at the first hurdle after the Constitutional Court, including Sulyok’s former colleagues, sent him a clear message that it was “time to go”.
“Never since 1990 has there been a moment when an overwhelming majority of the Hungarian nation, dozens of constitutional lawyers and the Constitutional Court itself have all demanded the resignation of a sitting president,” Péter Magyar said. Sulyok’s most important task should have been uniting the nation, the prime minister said. “He failed at that, but in the end — credit where credit’s due — he has managed to unite the country on one thing: that he must go.”
Péter Magyar: Orbán is a mafia boss
Magyar described Orbán as a “mafia boss” who had appointed Peter Polt, a prosecutor who “built his entire career not on prosecuting crime, but on obstructing the investigation of the most serious, unprecedented crimes in Hungarian history,” as the public prosecutor. Polt, he added, had served “the regime so well” that he became and was still the Constitutional Court president — “for a few more weeks, at least”.
The same “mafia boss”, Péter Magyar said, had installed a Kúria president who had never served a single day as a judge, requiring multiple legal amendments to push the appointment through. “The mafia always ensures its most trusted — or blackmailable — people occupy the key watchtower positions,” he added.
As part of the “purge operation,” Magyar announced that Sulyok’s mandate would end the day the amended Fundamental Law takes effect. “On that day, Tamás Sulyok’s term as president will cease — full stop,” he said. A comprehensive constitutional process will begin in September, involving all of Hungarian society to discuss and debate national issues, Péter Magyar said.
New Constitution
The new constitution will be put to a national referendum for approval. He said parliament would elect a new president to serve until the constitutional process is completed or for a maximum of five years — whichever comes first — to replace Sulyok, with the key task of restoring the prestige of the presidential office.
Meanwhile, the government will reinstate the 70-year age limit for Constitutional Court judges, meaning Polt’s term as president of the court will end, Magyar said. The court’s president will once again be elected by the judges themselves from among their own ranks, he added.
The government will also strengthen judicial self-governance, Péter Magyar said. The National Judicial Council will have the power to initiate the recall of the Kuria and OBH leaders at any time, with parliament making the final decision by a two-thirds majority. If the National Judicial Council does not act, a supermajority of judges — over two-thirds of Hungary’s 2,700 judges — can trigger a parliamentary vote on the recall, also requiring a two-thirds majority.
The rules for electing the Kúria president will also change, Magyar said. Previously, the court’s president was elected by parliament on the recommendation of the Hungarian president. Under the new proposal, judges will nominate candidates, and the president must choose from the top three to submit to parliament.
“This way, true judicial self-governance can be achieved, and unlike in the past, the heads of these bodies will no longer be politically appointed, unqualified, servile and blackmailable puppets,” Péter Magyar said.
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Parliamentary terms to be capped
To prevent the re-emergence of a “mafia system”, Magyar proposed capping parliamentary terms at 12 years. “Twelve years is enough time for anyone to serve, implement their programme, prove their competence and leave a legacy,” he said.
“Power is only borrowed from the Hungarian people… Those who forget this will eventually start treating the country as their personal property and its people as subjects.” The aim, Magyar stressed, was to ensure “the consequences of the destruction wrought on Hungary do not continue to poison the country”.
“This is the mandate we have received from millions of Hungarians.” A new constitution will be drafted, built on broad societal participation, public debates and political consensus, Magyar said. “Neither the transitional constitution after the regime change nor the 2011 Fundamental Law became the constitution of the entire national community,” he declared.
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PM Magyar must stop threats and intimidation
Fidesz is calling on the prime minister and his parliamentary majority to stop their threats and intimidation reminiscent of the Rákosi era and return to the calm, civil governance Hungary deserves, Bertalan Havasi, the opposition party’s communications director, said on Monday. In a statement, Havasi said that today, the whole country had finally seen and realised that “the prime minister has lost his mind”.
While many had been concerned by the signs before, it was now clear that Hungary was led by a prime minister “unable to control himself, prone to violence, and threatening citizens without restraint”, he said. Fidesz called on the prime minister and the parliamentary majority behind him to “stop their threats and intimidation reminiscent of the Rákosi era and return to the calm, civil governance Hungary deserves,” Havasi said.
