{"id":536050,"date":"2026-04-17T13:53:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T13:53:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/536050\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T13:53:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T13:53:10","slug":"eu-officials-arrive-in-hungary-for-high-stakes-talks-with-magyars-government-hungary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/536050\/","title":{"rendered":"EU officials arrive in Hungary for high-stakes talks with Magyar\u2019s government | Hungary"},"content":{"rendered":"

EU officials have arrived in Budapest for high-stakes talks aimed at reshaping the bloc\u2019s strained relationship with Hungary, weeks before the new government takes office, as the country\u2019s departing prime minister, Viktor Orb\u00e1n<\/a>, admitted a \u201cpolitical era has ended\u201d and suggested he would stay on as leader of his party in his first interview since the election.<\/p>\n

Speaking to the pro-government outlet<\/a> Patri\u00f3ta, Orb\u00e1n described Sunday\u2019s election as an \u201cemotional rollercoaster\u201d after the opposition Tisza party won a landslide victory<\/a>, bringing an end to his 16 years in power.<\/p>\n

P\u00e9ter Magyar\u2019s party won a supermajority, giving it the power to amend the constitution and potentially roll back key pillars of Orb\u00e1n\u2019s foray<\/a> into \u201cilliberal democracy\u201d.<\/p>\n

The scope of the loss has prompted questions over what lies ahead for Orb\u00e1n, whose decades-long political career has been marked by his efforts since 2010 to steadily whittle away<\/a> at the checks and balances that constrained his government\u2019s power: rewriting election laws to its own benefit, manoeuvring to put loyalists in control of an estimated 80% of Hungary\u2019s media and retooling the country\u2019s judiciary.<\/p>\n

Viktor Orb\u00e1n said he took the blame for Fidesz\u2019s loss in the election. Photograph: Attila Kisbenedek\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Speaking late on Thursday, Orb\u00e1n said the results had laid bare that his rightwing populist Fidesz party was in need of a \u201ccomplete renewal\u201d. Asked who was responsible for the defeat, Orb\u00e1n said he had no one to blame but himself. \u201cWell, as I am the president of the party \u2026 I must take 100% \u2060of this responsibility upon myself,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He added that Fidesz would vote on new leadership in June. \u201cIt will not be me who decides what I should do,\u201d he said. \u201cIf they say that I need to take the team out into the field, then I will take them to the next match.\u201d<\/p>\n

His comments came hours before a delegation from the EU was due to arrive in Budapest, in what is widely being seen as a critical reset for both sides. For the bloc, the visit marks a chance to turn the page on Orb\u00e1n\u2019s tempestuous tenure and persuade Hungary to lift its veto<\/a> on a \u20ac90bn (\u00a378bn) loan to Ukraine. Magyar, meanwhile, is scrambling to unlock about \u20ac17bn in frozen EU funds.<\/p>\n

Looming over the talks is a time crunch. \u201cThe clock is ticking for a number of topics,\u201d the EU commission\u2019s chief spokesperson, Paula Pinho, told reporters<\/a> on Thursday, as she explained why officials were travelling to Budapest before Magyar takes office in early May. \u201cObviously it is in the interest of Hungary, it is in the interest of the EU that we make progress as soon as possible \u2026 and that we do not waste any time.\u201d<\/p>\n

The frozen funds include nearly \u20ac17bn from the EU budget \u2013 \u20ac10bn of which will expire at the end of August \u2013 that require Hungary<\/a> to implement conditions such as checks on corruption, the right to asylum and academic freedom. More than \u20ac16bn in low-interest defence loans could also be on offer.<\/p>\n

Supporters of the pro-European Tisza party celebrate the election result on the banks of the Danube in Budapest on Sunday. Photograph: Ferenc Isza\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Orb\u00e1n\u2019s government said the ousted leader would not attend his final EU summit next week, sparing EU officials a potential showdown over his continued veto of the \u20ac90bn loan for Ukraine.<\/p>\n

During the talks on Friday, Magyar and Tisza would probably be pulled between campaign promises, the demands of the EU and the institutional constraints created by Fidesz\u2019s 16 years in power, said P\u00e9ter Krek\u00f3, the director of the Budapest-based Political Capital thinktank. \u201cTisza has to cut this Gordian knot somehow, which will not necessarily be very easy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Since taking power in 2010, Orb\u00e1n and his party have stacked the Hungarian state, media and judiciary with loyalists, and it remains unclear how they will react to changes made by a Tisza-led government.<\/p>\n

Even so, there was plenty of will among the EU and Tisza to hash out solutions, said Krek\u00f3. \u201cThe EU funds will be desperately needed so that Tisza can deliver at least on some of their promises,\u201d he said, while the EU was aware that the alternative could see a return to the \u201cobstructive and destructive\u201d relationship it had with Orb\u00e1n. \u201cI think the political will is definitely there to have the new government deliver so that Orb\u00e1n does not return to power.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the days since Sunday\u2019s election, Magyar has sought to reinforce his message of \u201cregime change\u201d with a series of actions and statements making clear his intent to break from Hungary\u2019s recent past. He has called for the resignation of the country\u2019s two highest courts, audit office and competition and media authorities, as well as the chief prosecutor and Hungary\u2019s president, describing them as \u201cpuppets\u201d of the former regime.<\/p>\n

In a Wednesday interview with state-run news outlets, he vowed to suspend their news coverage<\/a>, accusing them of spreading fear, lies and propaganda befitting North Korea and Nazi-era Germany.<\/p>\n

The following day, he said on social media that he would not move into Orb\u00e1n\u2019s office in the historic Castle Quarter, which towers over Budapest and overlooks the Danube River, but instead set up shop in a ministry building near Hungary\u2019s parliament.<\/p>\n

He also reiterated a campaign pledge to impose term limits on prime ministers \u2013 a move that could block Orb\u00e1n from returning to power \u2013 while pledging to pursue<\/a> those who had \u201cplundered, looted, betrayed, indebted and ruined\u201d the country.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, Orb\u00e1n said he had been filled with \u201cpain and emptiness\u201d as the results of the election became clear. \u201cEven I thought we were going to win. There were so many of us everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

He emphasised, however, that the party continued to have a wide voter base, winning nearly 2.4m votes in a country of 9.5 million people. \u201cLet\u2019s not act like the whole country rejected our government,\u201d Orb\u00e1n said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EU officials have arrived in Budapest for high-stakes talks aimed at reshaping the bloc\u2019s strained relationship with Hungary,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":536051,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-536050","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536050","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=536050"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536050\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/536051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=536050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=536050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=536050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}