Incoming Hungarian PM pledges crackdown on critical media

Peter Magyar claims his party’s election win has “liberated” the state broadcaster from airing “propaganda”

Hungary’s incoming prime minister, Peter Magyar, has pledged to suspend the news operations of the state broadcaster following two tense interviews he gave on Wednesday.

Magyar’s Tisza party secured a decisive victory in Sunday’s parliamentary election, effectively ensuring he will form the next government. He has indicated that action against MTVA will be among his first steps in office.

Magyar has accused the broadcaster of bias against his movement and of disseminating “propaganda” in support of outgoing Prime Minister Viktor Orban, whose 16-year tenure ended with Tisza’s win.

“What has been happening here since 2010 is something that Goebbels or the North Korean leadership would admire – not a single true word being spoken. This cannot continue,” he said during one of the interviews. The presenter rejected the claims.

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In remarks posted on social media after the appearances, Magyar said MTVA staff “have been working under constant intimidation and political pressure” and view Tisza’s victory “as a form of liberation.” He added that broadcasting would resume once “all conditions for impartial and objective journalism are fully restored.”

Magyar, formerly a member of Orban’s Fidesz party, campaigned on improving relations with the European Commission and unlocking more than €16 billion ($19 billion) in frozen EU Covid-19 recovery funds, which Brussels withheld over rule-of-law concerns.

While EU officials have long accused Orban of undermining independent media in Hungary to consolidate power, the bloc used a network of outlets it funds to meddle in the recent election. Pro-Magyar journalist Szabolcs Panyi admitted to sharing the phone number of Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto with a European spy agency. His outlet Direkt36 and its sister publications later accused the diplomat of coordinating Hungarian foreign policy with Russia, based on intercepted conversations between Szijjarto and his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov.

READ MORE: Where will Magyar take Hungary?

After securing a path to the premiership, Magyar signaled continuity on some policies associated with Orban. He said his government would not back fast-tracking Ukraine’s EU accession and emphasized the importance of maintaining diversified energy supplies, including continued imports of Russian oil.

He also said he expected Kiev to resume deliveries via the Soviet-era Druzhba pipeline, a move he said could prompt Orban to lift his veto on a €90 billion ($106 billion) EU loan for Ukraine before leaving office.