Péter Magyar spent years inside Viktor Orbán’s political machine. On Saturday morning, he walked back into Hungary’s neo-Gothic parliament building — this time to tear it down from the inside out.

Magyar, 45, was sworn in as Hungary’s prime minister during the inaugural session of the new national assembly on May 9, ending Orbán’s 16-year grip on power and marking what the incoming leader has bluntly called “regime change.” His centre-right Tisza party, founded just two years ago, won 141 of parliament’s 199 seats in an April 12 landslide — the largest victory by any party in Hungary’s post-communist history.

Thousands gathered on Kossuth Square outside, waving Hungarian and EU flags, watching proceedings on large screens. The EU flag was raised on the parliament’s facade for the first time since Orbán’s government removed it in 2014.

Orbán himself was absent — the first time since Hungary’s democratic transition in 1990 that he has not sat in parliament. His Fidesz-KDNP coalition collapsed from 135 seats to 52.

What 16 Years of Orbánism Built

Orbán transformed Hungary into what he openly called an “illiberal democracy,” and the transformation was structural. The judiciary was packed. Media outlets were consolidated into the hands of government-aligned businessmen. Civil society organisations faced legal harassment. State contracts and EU funds flowed through business networks tied to Fidesz, enriching a circle of loyalists and family members.

The economic consequences are now stark. Hungary’s economy has stagnated for four years. Public services have deteriorated. The budget deficit has already swollen close to its planned target for the entire year, after a pre-election spending spree by the outgoing government. Between 2021 and 2025, the share of Russian gas in Hungary’s imports rose from 60% to 90%, and Russian crude from 61% to 93%, according to a 2026 report by the Sofia-based Center for the Study of Democracy.

Brussels froze approximately €17 billion ($20 billion) in EU funds over rule-of-law and corruption concerns — money Hungary sorely needs.

The Scale of Undoing

Magyar’s supermajority gives him the constitutional power to push through sweeping reforms, and he has promised to use it. Plans include creating separate ministries for health, environment and education that Orbán abolished, overhauling the public broadcaster — widely regarded as a Fidesz mouthpiece — and establishing a National Asset Recovery and Protection Office to investigate and reclaim misused public funds.

But unwinding 16 years of entrenched patronage is not the same as winning an election. The new government has already stumbled. Magyar’s nomination of his brother-in-law, Márton Melléthei-Barna, as justice minister drew sharp criticism. Melléthei-Barna withdrew on Thursday evening, saying he wanted to ensure that “not even the slightest shadow is cast on the transition.”

Zoltán Tarr, the incoming minister for social relations and culture, acknowledged the difficulty. “We are ready to face a very grim economic situation,” he told the BBC. “But at the moment, we just don’t know the severity.”

There are signs the old system is already fraying. Hungary’s chief prosecutor and police have begun investigations they did not pursue before the election. “A lot more evidence is suddenly available,” a source close to the prosecutor’s office told the BBC, because “people are now coming forward.” The media empire of Gyula Balásy, which won millions in government contracts and ran hostile campaigns against migrants, George Soros, Volodymyr Zelensky and Magyar himself, is under investigation. Balásy offered to hand his companies to the state.

Hungary and the Wider Europe

Magyar’s pivot matters beyond Budapest. Orbán had become the EU’s principal obstructionist — vetoing aid to Ukraine, blocking accession talks, and cultivating ties with both Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump. Magyar has denounced Russian aggression and affirmed Ukraine’s territorial integrity, but he has ruled out sending military aid to Kyiv and declined to fast-track Ukraine’s EU accession, signalling that the final decision would go to a referendum where polling suggests most Hungarians oppose it.

He has proposed meeting Zelensky in Berehove, a Hungarian-speaking town in western Ukraine, to discuss minority rights — a persistent irritant in bilateral relations. Kyiv has not publicly responded.

Magyar met European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen last week. Tisza has vowed to end reliance on Russian fossil fuels by 2035 and review the Paks II nuclear project led by Russia’s Rosatom. Tsvetomir Nikolov, an analyst at the Center for the Study of Democracy, warned that leaving Orbán’s energy patronage intact would “continue to sustain the same governance mechanisms that have progressively eroded institutional resilience.”

The Distance Between Mandate and Change

Andrea Virag, director of strategy at the liberal Republikon Institute, captured the tension: “There is a lot of patience and goodwill towards the new government, but the expectations are through the roof and need to be met in the short-term as well.”

Magyar has the seats. He has the constitutional authority. He has a population that endured 16 years of democratic erosion and voted for something different. Whether institutions can be rebuilt at the speed they were dismantled is the question that will define Hungary’s next chapter — and test whether democratic backsliding, once entrenched, is reversible.

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