{"id":450234,"date":"2026-04-13T18:16:23","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T16:16:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2026\/04\/13\/solo-due-mandati-per-il-premier-magyar-gia-al-lavoro-per-scongiurare-il-ritorno-di-orban\/"},"modified":"2026-04-13T19:26:25","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T17:26:25","slug":"magyar-termlimit-orban-hungary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2026\/04\/13\/magyar-termlimit-orban-hungary\/","title":{"rendered":"“Only two terms for the prime minister”: Magyar is already working to prevent Orb\u00e1n’s return"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels \u2013 To avert the risk that the former Hungarian Prime Minister,\u00a0Viktor Orb\u00e1n<\/strong>, might stand for election again in four years\u2019 time and thus attempt to regain the power he\u00a0lost<\/a>\u00a0in yesterday\u2019s (12 April)\u00a0Hungarian elections<\/strong>: This appears to be the aim of the first constitutional amendment being considered by\u00a0P\u00e9ter Magyar<\/strong><\/a>,\u00a0the undisputed winner of the vote and Orb\u00e1n\u2019s future successor. \u201cIn Hungary, from now on,\u00a0the Prime Minister may hold office for only two terms<\/strong>, for a total of eight years,\u201d\u00a0announced<\/a>\u00a0the leader of TISZA during a press conference held the day after the election victory. Magyar specified that the amendment would be\u00a0retroactive<\/strong>\u00a0and that this very aspect would make it a sort of\u00a0tombstone<\/strong>\u00a0for Orb\u00e1n\u2019s future ambitions to govern, given that the latter has already completed five terms as head of the executive.<\/p>\n

It is likely that Magyar came up with the idea by looking back on the political career of the man who had been his “political mentor” until their split in 2024. The founder of Fidesz won his first election in\u00a01998<\/strong>, only to be defeated in\u00a02002<\/strong>\u00a0and spend eight years in opposition. In\u00a02010<\/strong>, he emerged victorious from the polls once again, and it was precisely from his second term as prime minister that Orb\u00e1n began dismantling Hungary\u2019s democratic framework, transforming it into what he himself described, in\u00a02014<\/strong>, as an \u2018illiberal democracy<\/strong>\u2019.\u00a0Magyar, therefore, appears to be taking steps to prevent\u00a0a repeat of this scenario<\/strong>, while also being able to rely on a parliamentary composition that would allow him to\u00a0amend the Constitution with relative ease<\/strong>\u00a0(TISZA holds\u00a0138 seats<\/strong>, five more than the “crucial”\u00a0two-thirds threshold).<\/p>\n

A few minutes after this announcement, Magyar received a piece of paper from his assistant and, after reading it, gave the journalists present in the room the second significant piece of news to emerge from this press conference. The prime minister-designate\u00a0explained that he had just received reports that the current Hungarian foreign minister,\u00a0P\u00e9ter Szijj\u00e1rt\u00f3<\/b>, “is currently in his office\u00a0destroying documents relating to sanctions against Russia<\/b><\/a>.”\u00a0The news forms part of the wider context of the\u00a0\u00a0political controversy\u00a0<\/a>concerning regular telephone calls between Szijj\u00e1rt\u00f3 and his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, in which the former allegedly revealed to the latter confidential information discussed among\u00a0the foreign ministers of EU countries. In one of the\u00a0calls\u00a0<\/a>published by the newspaper behind the investigation,\u00a0The Washington Post<\/em>, Lavrov asked Hungary to assist Moscow in its attempt to persuade the EU to lift sanctions imposed on certain prominent figures in\u00a0the Russian oligarchy.<\/p>\n

“Many people thought that (Szijj\u00e1rt\u00f3, ed.) would disappear and resign, but I would like to reassure everyone by telling you that he has reappeared today,” Magyar commented ironically, before turning serious and explaining that the attempt to destroy confidential information in order to evade responsibility “will not help them, but it is useful for understanding the context of the situation in Hungary.” Emphasising how news of this kind highlights just how difficult it will be for the new government to complete the\u00a0transition from the Orb\u00e1n era<\/strong>, Magyar pointed out that “normally, an elected prime minister should receive a briefing on matters relating to national security from the outgoing one, but that is not what is happening in Hungary.” \u201cThere are a great many\u00a0international treaties<\/strong>\u00a0costing Hungarians billions, but\u00a0no one knows the details<\/strong>, not even I, who am the leader of the main opposition party and the future head of government,\u201d he concluded.<\/p>\n

While Magyar was once again highly critical of the “dangerous ties” between the Orb\u00e1n government and the Kremlin, his comments on some of the thorniest issues relating to\u00a0the Russian-Ukrainian conflict<\/strong>\u00a0suggest that\u00a0Hungary\u2019s stance\u00a0<\/strong>towards the EU\u2019s line\u00a0may change far less\u00a0<\/strong>than a superficial reading of these elections would suggest. On the issue of the new\u00a0\u20ac90 billion European loan to Kyiv<\/b><\/a>, for example, the incoming prime minister has opened the door to the possibility of\u00a0lifting Orb\u00e1n\u2019s veto<\/strong>, but at the same time has asserted Hungary\u2019s right to the so-called “opt-out<\/a>“, that is, to demand that the decision does not impose obligations on Budapest as well. A similarly cold response was given to the possibility of Ukraine being granted a\u00a0fast-track route to EU membership<\/b>. “It is\u00a0impossible<\/strong>\u00a0for a country currently at war to be admitted to the Union,” stated Magyar, emphasising that “all countries must undergo the same process” and that, even if Kyiv were deemed fully eligible for membership, “the Hungarian people will have their say in a\u00a0referendum<\/strong>.” But it is on the issue of the\u00a0European boycott of Russian gas<\/strong>\u00a0that Magyar\u2019s words seem almost to echo those spoken by Orb\u00e1n in recent years. Although he has shown far greater\u00a0openness to diversifying<\/strong>\u00a0supply sources for reasons of \u201cenergy security and economic convenience,\u201d the TISZA leader explained that \u201cgeography cannot be changed<\/strong>\u00a0and Russia and Hungary will always be where they are now.\u201d \u201cFor this reason,\u201d he continued, \u201cI hope that Russia\u2019s aggression against Ukraine ends soon\u201d and that at that point \u201cEurope immediately lifts the sanctions<\/strong>\u00a0on Moscow.\u201d \u201cWe are neighbours of Russia,\u201d Magyar remarked, \u201cand it is not in Europe\u2019s interest to purchase raw materials at higher prices, because that destroys our competitiveness.\u201d A position\u00a0that stands in stark contrast<\/strong>\u00a0to that repeatedly emphasised by the\u00a0European Commission<\/strong>, according to which reducing dependence on Russian energy sources should be\u00a0permanent<\/a>, regardless of how the conflict unfolds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

During the post-election press conference, the winner of the Hungarian elections stated that the constitutional amendment would also apply retroactively, thereby effectively putting an end to Orb\u00e1n\u2019s future political ambitions<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7899,"featured_media":449586,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25681],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-450234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7899"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=450234"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450234\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":450238,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450234\/revisions\/450238"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/449586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=450234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=450234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=450234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}