Hungary's prime-minister elect speaks out against corruption during his first press briefing

Hungary's next PM pledges Hungary would be a “constructive partner” in the EU and NATO

Hungary’s prime minister-electPéter Magyar held his first international press conference on Monday, after his landslide victory that ended Fidesz’s 16-year rule. During the press briefing, he said Hungarians had made clear that “Hungary’s place was, is, and will be in Europe”. He urged President Tamás Sulyok to convene parliament and begin the process of forming a government without delay. Framing the result as the start of “a new era”, Magyar said voters had backed not only a change of government but a “complete regime change”, pledging to represent all Hungarians and to amend the constitution to introduce a two-term limit for prime ministers. He also promised to restore checks and balances, review undisclosed agreements and contracts, and make public any that do not harm national interests, while involving citizens more directly in decision-making through referendums and local votes.

Magyar said his government would prioritise tackling corruption, including setting up an anti-corruption office and pursuing audits of major public procurements, as well as seeking to join the European Public Prosecutor’s Office. He pledged that Hungary would be a “constructive partner” in the EU and NATO, while maintaining pragmatic relations with Russia and diversifying energy sources, stressing that Hungary would not interfere in other countries’ internal affairs. He said Ukraine was “a victim in this war”, while adding that normalising relations would require addressing the rights of Hungary’s minority there, and ruled out supporting Ukraine’s accelerated EU accession during wartime. Magyar also signalled efforts to rebuild ties with allies, including Poland, Germany, and Austria.

He said the rule of law would govern Hungary, maintain close relations with the United States, and seek to restore its standing in Europe, while addressing issues such as migration through what he described as more direct and realistic approaches.

Magyar vows to halt state media, calling it a ‘propaganda machine.’

Péter Magyar has said he will suspend news coverage by state media when his government takes office in mid-May, describing the system as a “propaganda machine”. Speaking in two tense interviews on public radio and television on Wednesday, following his landslide election victory that ended Viktor Orbán’s 16 years in power, Magyar outlined plans for the move and used the appearances to sharply criticise the outlets’ editorial line.

Magyar said it was his first invitation to appear on state media in 18 months, contrasting it with Orbán’s regular presence. During the interviews, he accused the outlets of spreading fear and falsehoods, likening their output to propaganda from North Korea and Nazi-era Germany. “Every Hungarian deserves a public service media that broadcasts the truth,” he told Kossuth radio, adding that his government would introduce a new press law and establish a media authority aimed at ensuring state media fulfils its intended role.

Hungary's regulator investigates use of Webloc mass surveillance system

An investigation by VSquare and Citizen Lab has found that Hungarian intelligence agencies have been covertly using Webloc, a mass geolocation surveillance system developed by the Israeli-American firm Cobwebs Technologies. The tool draws on location data gathered by smartphone apps for advertising purposes, enabling authorities to track the movements of hundreds of millions of people through unique device identifiers, without their knowledge or consent. It allows agencies to geofence specific areas, reconstruct individuals’ movements from historical data, and link digital identities to physical locations in near real time. Within the EU, the use of such personal and advertising data for government surveillance is widely regarded as incompatible with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which tightly restricts how such data may be processed and shared.

A week after the report was published, Hungary’s data protection authority said it was taking action. Attila Péterfalvi, head of the National Authority for Data Protection and Freedom of Information, said the body had no prior knowledge of the tool or its alleged use before receiving a press inquiry, indicating that intelligence agencies had been operating the system without the regulator’s awareness. He confirmed that no complaint or notification had been filed and announced the launch of an ex officio investigation into the use of Webloc in Hungary. The response came days after Viktor Orbán’s electoral defeat, at a time when other institutions previously seen as aligned with the government have begun to act.