The comments come after Michael McGrath, the EU’s new rule-of-law commissioner, said last week that it was “never too late” for Hungary to come back in from the cold, and as Budapest is on the brink of losing €1 billion in EU money that was frozen because of rule-of-law breaches.
But Bodnar said that even if opposition leader Péter Magyar manages to beat Orbán in the 2026 Hungarian election, as polls show he might, the damage to civil society will have been so profound over 16 years of Fidesz rule that it would require a Herculean effort to repair it.
“Taking into account the depth of institutional changes but also weaker civil society than in Poland,” the European Commission faces a tough challenge bringing Budapest back into the EU fold, added Bodnar.
Bodnar, the Polish Ombudsman from 2015 until 2021, was an outspoken critic of his country’s previous nationalist Law and Justice-led government, before becoming Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s justice minister in 2023.
His comments came as Warsaw prepares to take over the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU from Hungary in January. Amid an emphasis on defense, competitiveness and enlargement, Bodnar said he would personally insist on beefing up protections for civil society, including judges who increasingly face pressure and intimidation around the bloc.
“Do we have chilling effect for judges to speak? If you ask Hungarian judges, I’m not sure whether they can speak about their situation freely,” Bodnar said. “We have a responsibility for protecting all those independent voices.”