Péter Magyar’s election landslide has turned Hungary’s transfer of power into an immediate institutional confrontation, with the prime minister-elect demanding President Tamás Sulyok’s resignation, threatening to suspend state media news operations, and preparing constitutional changes backed by a projected two-thirds parliamentary majority.
Tisza’s victory ended Viktor Orbán’s 16-year rule and gave Magyar’s party a projected supermajority of 138 seats in Hungary’s 199-seat parliament, above the 133-seat threshold needed for constitutional amendments.
Magyar arrived Wednesday at Budapest’s Sándor Palace to meet Sulyok and said the president was “unworthy of representing the unity of the Hungarian nation,” “unfit to serve as the guardian of legality,” and “not fit to serve as a moral authority or a role model.”
He added that after the new government is formed, Sulyok “must leave office immediately.”
The demand matters because Sulyok is viewed by Magyar as an Orbán-era institutional holdover, and Tisza’s supermajority gives the incoming government the numbers to rewrite Hungary’s constitutional architecture.
AP reported that Sulyok told Magyar he would nominate him as prime minister and convene the new parliament by May 6 or 7, ahead of the legal May 12 deadline, allowing the new government to take power as early as the beginning of May.
Magyar also used his return to state broadcaster M1 after roughly 18 months away from public television to target another pillar of the Orbán system. He said the incoming Tisza government would suspend the news services of “public” media until its public service character is restored, calling the current operation a propaganda machine.
The Guardian separately reported that Magyar pledged new press laws and a media authority aimed at objective reporting.
Magyar said the government would also nationalize assets transferred during the Orbán era to businesspeople and foundations, specifically citing the Mathias Corvinus Collegium Foundation, which he said received 10% of MOL, Hungary’s oil company, and 10% of Gedeon Richter, the pharmaceutical company, for free. The pledge aligns with his broader promise to recover assets he says were “plundered” under Orbán and to establish mechanisms for accountability over state-linked wealth transfers.
The prime minister-elect also framed the transition around social repair, saying 400,000 Hungarian children live in deep poverty after 16 years of Orbán rule.
The EU track is equally urgent. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said “swift work” is needed after a call with Magyar, with Reuters reporting that reforms are tied to about €17 billion in frozen EU funds, including roughly €10 billion from the pandemic recovery fund that Hungary must access by August 31 by meeting conditions such as strengthening judicial independence and aligning with EU values.
Magyar’s pro-EU reset does not mean a full break with every Orbán policy. Reporting after the election shows he is expected to pursue rule-of-law and anti-corruption reforms while preserving harder lines on migration, border controls, family policy, and some Ukraine-related questions.
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