{"id":72630,"date":"2026-05-15T16:34:26","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T16:34:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/72630\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T16:34:26","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T16:34:26","slug":"hungarys-new-prime-minister-removes-fences-and-opens-viktor-orbans-former-offices-to-the-public","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/72630\/","title":{"rendered":"Hungary\u2019s new prime minister removes fences and opens Viktor Orb\u00e1n\u2019s former offices to the public"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hungary<\/a>‘s new Prime Minister, P\u00e9ter Magyar<\/a>, has made a symbolic gesture of democratic renewal, personally removing fencing around a historic Budapest<\/a> building that once served as the office of his autocratic predecessor, Viktor Orb\u00e1n<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Karmelita, a former Catholic<\/a> monastery on Budapest<\/a>‘s Castle Hill, had become a potent symbol of Mr Orb\u00e1n\u2019s rule after being controversially cordoned off in 2021. <\/a><\/p>\n

Mr Magyar announced the building would now be open to the public, declaring: “There is no place for cordons in Hungary<\/a> after the change of regime.”<\/p>\n

He added that such institutions were built “from the money of the Hungarian taxpayers and made so beautiful with those funds.”<\/p>\n

This action follows his centre-right Tisza party’s landslide victory in April,<\/a> which secured a two-thirds majority, ending Mr Orb\u00e1n\u2019s 16-year tenure.<\/p>\n

Mr Magyar has pledged to restore democratic institutions and governmental checks and balances, which he claims were severely eroded, alongside a commitment to tackle alleged corruption.<\/p>\n

\"Mr<\/p>\n

Mr Magyar announced the building would now be open to the public, declaring: \u2018There is no place for cordons in Hungary after the change of regime\u2019 (MTVA – Media Service Support and Asset Management Fund)<\/p>\n

He has revealed the luxury renovations that former government members carried out on their offices. Magyar himself has said he would move his seat to the administrative part of the city on the other bank of the Danube<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Karmelita building, he said, will now be accessible for an \u201cextensive period.\u201d Already, a website has been set up where visitors can book a tour. Magyar said some buildings in the castle zone have been renovated while other are under construction.<\/p>\n

The situation \u201cis likely to generate a number of new ideas,\u201d he added without elaborating.<\/p>\n

Magyar, a 45-year-old lawyer who founded Tisza in 2024 after years as an insider within Orb\u00e1n\u2019s party, has pledged to eradicate official corruption, which he argues has deprived Hungarians of economic opportunity.<\/p>\n

The prime minister has promised to repair his country\u2019s ties with its European Union<\/a> partners and restore Hungary\u2019s place among Western democracies.<\/p>\n

\"Magyar,<\/p>\n

Magyar, a 45-year-old lawyer who founded Tisza in 2024 after years as an insider within Orb\u00e1n\u2019s party, has pledged to eradicate official corruption, which he argues has deprived Hungarians of economic opportunity (AFP\/Getty)<\/p>\n

Magyar plans to form a National Asset Recovery and Protection Office, an authority tasked with investigating and seeking to recover public funds misused during Orb\u00e1n\u2019s tenure.<\/p>\n

A key priority for Magyar is to mend Hungary\u2019s strained relationship with the EU, which Orb\u00e1n had pushed to breaking point, and to restore the country\u2019s standing among Western democracies, a position questioned as Orb\u00e1n drew closer to Russia<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Unlocking approximately \u20ac17 billion (\u00a314.5 billion) in EU funds, frozen during Orb\u00e1n\u2019s tenure over rule-of-law and corruption concerns, is paramount for Hungary\u2019s struggling economy, which has stagnated for the past four years.<\/p>\n

In a symbolic gesture, Tisza officials have announced they will reinstate the EU flag on the Parliament building\u2019s facade, removed by Orb\u00e1n\u2019s government in 2014.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hungary‘s new Prime Minister, P\u00e9ter Magyar, has made a symbolic gesture of democratic renewal, personally removing fencing around…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":72631,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16416],"tags":[41548,422,41546,934,41547,350],"class_list":{"0":"post-72630","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-peter-magyar","8":"tag-democratic-institutions","9":"tag-hungary","10":"tag-mr-magyar","11":"tag-peter-magyar","12":"tag-symbolic-gesture","13":"tag-viktor-orban"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@people\/116579564307006122","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72630"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72630\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}