Big fish hooked in Hungary, as Orbán’s ex-bank chief placed in custody (Day 163 of the Tisza government)
Prosecutors are circling Orbán’s ex‑bank chief, as Magyar rewrites Hungary’s budget.
Hungary
EUobserver monitors Hungary’s 2026 elections, analyzing Viktor Orbán, Fidesz, and the opposition landscape. Our reporting covers rule of law challenges, EU funding disputes, and the impact of Hungarian politics on European Union stability.
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‘I’m 42 and I’ve spent my entire adult life held captive by Bibi’ – can Israel finally break free of Netanyahu, as Hungary did of Orbán?
Benjamin Netanyahu has not been Israel’s prime minister for every one of those years. Yet even out of office, Israeli politics rarely escaped his gravitational pull. Hungarians know something about that feeling.
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Train contract blow for Hungary’s richest man, plus Orbán will not mark 1956 anniversary (Day 156 of the Tisza government)
From derailing a flagship rail deal for Orbán-linked tycoon Lőrinc Mészáros to securing fresh EU and NGO money, the new Tisza government is rapidly unpicking the old system’s deals while racing to show voters concrete gains.
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Orbán channelled public money into propaganda through Hungarian billionaire Lőrinc Mészáros (Day 150 of the Tisza government)
Internal documents show how a top Orbán-era rail contractor showered Megafon influencers with billions of forints.
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MEPs warn against EU rush to restarting funds for Hungary while corruption and plurality concerns remain
Hungary is starting to address the EU’s concerns over the rule of law and judicial independence, and the EU seems tkeen to quickly resume frozen funding for Budapest.
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Orbánism without Orbán? Why Magyar picked a fight with Kyiv over the ‘Carpathian Eight’
Some expected a change in Hungary’s pro-Russian foreign policy after Viktor Orbán’s fall. But they failed to take into account the domestic political pressures on Hungary’s PM .
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Magyar waives his own immunity, as Hungary targets billions in alleged fraud and two former Orbán ministers in custody (Day 143 of the Tisza government)
PM Peter Magyar waives his own immunity as Hungary’s “Operation Purgatory” saw authorities detain two former Orbán ministers over alleged multibillion-forint corruption. The new asset recovery office took over four major cases, including Orbán’s brother’s visa business, while Hungary may soon join the European Public Prosecutor’s Office.
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Orbán dominoes start falling: Hungary’s accountability drive reaches ex-Fidesz ministers (Day 135 of the Tisza government)
With ex-ministers facing bribery charges and a motorway concession worth €65bn under fire, the Tisza government’s push for accountability is starting to hit the wallets and freedom of the Orbán-era elite.
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EU moves to unlock €4.2bn for Hungary as Magyar strengthens rule-of-law and corruption rules
The EU Commission proposes to unfreeze billions of euros for Hungary, as changes in the few months since the April election of Peter Magyar become visible.
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Orbán re-emerges after long summer holiday, as Magyar strips homophobia from child protection laws (Day 128 of the Tisza government)
Prime minister Péter Magyar tackles the child protection law, moving to strip the Orban-era conflation of homosexuality with paedophilia from Hungary’s laws.
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Magyar’s Hungary expels 10 Russian diplomats and dismantles Fidesz’s county fiefdoms (Day 122 of the Tisza government)
By slashing the powers of Fidesz’s regional barons and kicking out a fifth of Russia’s embassy staff, Péter Magyar is trying to recast Hungary’s role in both its own hinterland and the wider European security game.
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Meta under fire as Facebook fails to remove homophobic abuse in Hungary
Homophobic and hateful content on Facebook was a contributing driver of psychological distress for the LGBTQI community in Hungary, who were already the target of former prime minister Viktor Orbán’s gender-war policies.
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Hungary’s asset-recovery proves problematic, while Orbán’s Facebook page goes silent (Day 114 of the Tisza government)
Internal accounts of dud Covid ventilators, a taxpayer-funded African military mission run by Viktor Orbán’s son, and billions parked in politically-controlled foundations expose how far the previous regime’s “wish lists” strayed from the public good.
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Hungary’s Orbán-style media takeover playbook lands in Serbia before elections
Hungarian state money has spent years financing media acquisitions across Europe. A fund with a long record in that trade has just taken Serbia’s last independent broadcasters. It has done so in an unusual rush, weeks before a Serbian election. Gaps in the public record and undisclosed funding make these, when taken together, difficult to ignore.
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Hungary’s overpriced Covid ventilators: Szijjártó scandal becomes first big test for Tisza’s anti‑corruption drive (Day 107 of the Tisza government)
The probe into Hungary’s wildly-overpriced ventilator deals risks becoming a litmus test for whether the new Tisza government is truly ready to confront the Orbán-era system that siphoned off billions — and to face the geopolitical fallout of challenging a former foreign minister.
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As new president András Baka arrives, is Orbán preparing to leave Hungary? (Day 94 of the Tisza government)
Not even the energy crisis or the extreme heat could slow down Hungarian prime minister Péter Magyar and his party’s, Tisza’s, transformation of the political system. Although not without missteps, the new prime minister followed through on the campaign he launched in April to replace the president of the republic, completing it by mid-August.
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Ousted by Orbán, back with a vengeance: Hungary’s president András Baka to restore rule of law
Behind closed doors, Tisza ditched high‑profile names before settling on Baka, the quiet jurist whose earlier ousting became a European human-rights scandal.
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Hungary faces record heat, nuclear fears and a public media scandal ahead of August presidential vote (Day 87 of the Tisza government)
As Hungary struggles through an energy crisis, prime minister Péter Magyar is fighting off Fidesz attacks, recovering billions from an Orbán-linked era, and facing controversy over who really controls the country’s public media.
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Want to see the climate crisis? Go to the banks of the dried-up Danube
With the river too shallow for freight, a nuclear plant almost offline and big firms ordered to curb power use, Hungary’s heatwave is rippling straight into citizens’ jobs, bills and fears of blackouts.
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Paks nuclear plant winds down amid historic Danube low, as far right urges Hungarians to defy calls for energy saving
With turbines winding down at Paks, bridges in darkness and freight trains halted at peak hours, Hungarians are suddenly feeling how a shrinking Danube can upend daily life and the wider economy.
