Hungary’s PM launches drive to free country from Orban’s ‘mafia’

Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Magyar on Monday unveiled an ambitious reform programme in a fiery parliamentary speech, vowing to free the country from the 'political and economic mafia' that ruled under former premier Viktor Orban for 16 years.

The package, dubbed 'Operation Cleansing Fire', includes drafting a new constitution, purging state institutions, establishing an anti-corruption agency, and removing President Tamas Sulyok. Magyar called on Sulyok – an Orban appointee – to resign and proposed a constitutional amendment to force his removal. If Sulyok is ousted, a new president would be elected for a maximum five-year term.

Magyar’s Tisza Party government, which took office in April after unseating Orban, is racing to implement reforms to unlock 16.4 billion euros ($19bn) in frozen EU funds by the end of August. The funds were blocked due to rule-of-law concerns under Orban. Other changes include a mandatory retirement age of 70 for Constitutional Court judges, forcing Orban ally Peter Polt to step down, and a 12-year term limit for lawmakers.

Citing that corruption has cost Hungarians 8-10% of GDP in recent years, Magyar vowed that the new anti-corruption authority would employ 'the best police officers, investigators and experts'. Earlier this month, parliament also passed a constitutional amendment limiting prime ministerial terms to eight years and scrapped the legal basis for the Sovereignty Protection Office, a body created in 2023 to investigate critics of Orban.