Far-right leaders from the Patriots for Europe group are increasingly raising concerns over the latest political developments in Hungary, warning of a decline in democracy under Prime Minister Péter Magyar – but the European Commission remains supportive of Magyar’s government, which it considers pro-European.
Magyar, who ousted his predecessor Viktor Orbán at April’s parliamentary election, has launched a political campaign dubbed “Purgatorium” to dismantle Orbán’s political system and remove officials appointed by his predecessor.
Some of the country’s most prominent Orbán-era figures are already falling away. Last weekend, President Tamás Sulyok signed a constitutional amendment that ended his own mandate; this week, Prosecutor General Gábor Bálint Nagy resigned, citing growing political pressure.
On Tuesday, Orbán said prosecutors had raided Fidesz’s party headquarters and confiscated servers, blocking the opposition party’s communications system.
While the raid formed part of a corruption investigation into the misuse of cultural grants for the party’s election campaign, Fidesz claimed it was part of a wider effort to eradicate it altogether.
Orbán told journalists that “a political authoritarian system was established in Hungary”, while Balázs Orbán, a Fidesz MP and close ally of the former prime minister, told Euronews the raid was politically motivated.
“It has nothing to do with the corruption case, which, according to our understanding, is itself a fake case,” he said. “But if you want to investigate that fake case, it doesn’t mean you need access to all the party’s information and data. It’s about putting pressure on a political party – something that has never happened in Hungary’s 36-year history [as a democracy].”
Magyar said the government is not interfering in the investigation, which he stressed is operating independently of the political system. Prosecutors said the raid was part of a probe into suspected fraud and other crimes.
Dániel Hegedűs, deputy director of the Institut für Europäische Politik in Berlin, declined to comment on the specific criminal case, but noted that tackling corruption was a central campaign pledge of Magyar’s Tisza party.
“The key campaign message and campaign promise of the Tisza party was that those who committed criminal offences, particularly corruption, under Fidesz rule would be held responsible through the tools of criminal justice in Hungary,” he said, adding that he expects further such investigations to follow.
EU far right echoes Orbán
Two weeks ago, around 50 MEPs from the European Parliament’s right wing urged the European Commission to investigate Hungary’s democratic standing urgently, amid Magyar’s push to remove Orbán-era officials.
“Why is the Commission now silent when a government openly violates European constitutional principles?” the MEPs’ letter asked. The letter also raised objections to the constitutional amendment, which sets an age limit for constitutional court judges and caps the number of terms MPs and the prime minister may serve.
The Commission has yet to respond.
Orbán’s complaints have been echoed by political allies across Europe from the Patriots for Europe group, of which Fidesz is a founding member. Italy’s deputy prime minister, Matteo Salvini, and French opposition leader Marine Le Pen have both criticised Magyar and Brussels.
“If democracy is bent to strike at the opposition, it is no longer democracy. And it is striking how deafening the silence is from Brussels and from those who for years have spoken – often inappropriately – about the rule of law,” Salvini wrote on X.
Le Pen also posted on X, accusing Magyar of trampling on democratic norms while being shielded by the European Commission.
Commission quietly approves crackdown
So far, the Commission has not responded to Orbán allies’ complaints, citing the ongoing nature of the criminal investigation. Yet commissioners have remained positive about the rule-of-law reforms undertaken by Magyar’s government.
Hungary and the Commission have struck a deal under which Brussels will unfreeze €16.4 billion in previously withheld EU recovery funds in exchange for Magyar’s government delivering on anti-corruption and transparency reforms.
A week ago, presenting the EU’s annual rule of law report, Commissioner Michael McGrath praised Hungary’s reforms.
“In Hungary more generally, we see some very positive trends,” he told a press conference. He stopped short of answering a specific question on the removal of President Sulyok through the constitutional amendment, saying the Commission was awaiting the Venice Commission’s report on the matter.
Earlier, however, in an interview with Euronews, McGrath said changes at the very top were necessary.
“It’s inevitable when you have such a seismic change in a country’s political landscape that there will be personnel changes,” he told Euronews in June. “That’s a normal scenario. What is important is that due process is always followed, and that the rights of every individual citizen, including those holding public office, are respected.”
Hegedűs agreed with McGrath, saying the removal of political appointees from high office was a necessary step to which standard EU rule-of-law criteria could not be straightforwardly applied.
“The general approach to dismantling state capture and reinstating institutional independence in such a redemocratisation phase – it might be unavoidable to remove those who were political appointees,” he said.
He added, however, that he was concerned about one element of the constitutional amendment: a 12-year limit on parliamentary terms.
“In my view, this limits a fundamental right: the right to be elected.”