On the day Peter Magyar was sworn in, we talked with Hungary expert Kim Lane Scheppele from Princeton University to discuss what to expect from the new prime minister, who spent twenty years in Viktor Orban‘s Fidesz Party before assuming leadership of the Tisza Party and becoming Hungary’s most prominent opposition figure.
Scheppele says the 45-year-old center-right politician is taking strides to undo the institutional and social damage caused during Orban’s 16 years in power.
A National Asset Recovery Office is leading an anti-corruption campaign to trace and freeze misappropriated assets. A comprehensive judicial reform is also seen as essential to unlocking much-needed European Union funding to kick-start Hungary’s struggling economy.
For Scheppele, Hungary is a blueprint for other European democracies under siege — showing that the key political divide is no longer between left and right, but between autocracy and democracy.