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In late 2023, the Polish prime minister wrote the modern playbook on unwinding years of entrenched illiberal rule. Now, Magyar is looking to apply it, especially as the two leaders expressed a similar to-do list across three key areas.
To bypass an opposition president, Andrzej Duda, Tusk’s government used a parliamentary resolution to instantly dismiss state broadcast management, literally taking the network offline overnight. Magyar is threatening the exact same shock therapy.
Following a heated interview last week on public television, which he likened to North Korean propaganda, he explicitly vowed to suspend the national broadcaster’s actual signal the moment he takes office.
And for the judiciary, both leaders made joining the European Public Prosecutor’s Office a day-one priority, reversing their predecessors’ refusals to participate.
Tusk is still struggling to implement a full judicial reform. He has faced severe gridlock, requiring complex legal acrobatics to bypass presidential vetoes. Magyar, however, wields a two-thirds constitutional majority. EU officials are already in Budapest negotiating the release of €10.4bn in recovery funds, knowing Magyar has the parliamentary numbers to push the necessary reforms.
Finally, Tusk rapidly purged the management boards of state-owned enterprises, with the oil giant Orlen being the most famous example.
And Magyar is preparing a similar sweep across Hungary’s state-backed institutions. He plans to recover state assets and cut funding to ideological networks like Mathias Corvinus Collegium, or MCC.
However, this strategy could have downsides. Rushing invites legal missteps and advocates of the outgoing governments argued that neither Orbán nor Morawiecki directly obstructed the transition.
One thing is certain: from illiberal to liberal transitions, the new approach seems to rely on shock therapy to dismantle the old system overnight.
Watch the Euronews video in the player above for the full story.