Hungary’s prime minister-elect vows to suspend ‘propaganda machine’ state media

Hungary’s prime minister-elect has vowed to suspend state media news coverage, describing it as a “propaganda machine,” when his government takes office around mid-May.

Péter Magyar, whose landslide election victory on Sunday brought an end to Viktor Orbán’s 16 years in power, detailed his plans for the suspension as he gave two tense interviews to public radio and television on Wednesday.

The appearances marked his first invitation to take part in state media in 18 months, Magyar said, in sharp contrast to Orbán’s regular appearances.

The incoming leader used the interviews to confront the outlets over their coverage, accusing them of spreading fear and lies and comparing their coverage to propaganda from North Korea and Nazi-era Germany. “Every Hungarian deserves a public service media that broadcasts the truth,” Magyar told Kossuth state radio.

He said his government would pass a new press law and create a media authority with the aim of allowing state media “to actually do what it is meant to do”.

The state media authority hit back at Magyar’s claims of being shut out during the campaign, saying it had extended multiple invitations to Magyar and his party.

Reporters Without Borders has consistently raised concerns about the media landscape in Hungary, where loyalists to Orbán’s Fidesz party control an estimated 80% of the country’s media and state media have long been used as a government mouthpiece for Orbán.

Magyar posted to social media after the interviews: “We have just witnessed the last days of a propaganda machine. After the formation of the Tisza government, we will suspend the news services of the ‘public’ media until its public service character is restored.”

The PM-elect also reiterated his call for the Hungarian president, Tamás Sulyok, an Orbán supporter, to resign during a meeting between the two on Wednesday. “I repeated to him that, in my eyes and in the eyes of the Hungarian people, he is unworthy of embodying the unity of the Hungarian nation, incapable of ensuring respect for the law,” he told reporters, adding that Sulyok had agreed to “consider” his arguments. “I told the president … that Hungarian people have voted for a change of regime.”

The state media interviews and the meeting with the president offered a glimpse of the challenges that lie ahead for Magyar as he seeks to use his landslide victory to dismantle Orbán’s “illiberal democracy”. During his time in power, Orbán’s Fidesz party stacked the Hungarian state, media and judiciary with loyalists, prompting questions as to how they will respond to a Tisza-led government.

Magyar said Sulyok had told him that the new parliament would be convened around 6 or 7 of May, meaning his government could be sworn in by mid-May or perhaps earlier.

Donald Trump, one of Orbán’s staunchest global allies, has appeared to brush off the loss in his most recent comments on the vote. “I think the new man’s going to do a good job – he’s a good man,” he told ABC News’ Jonathan Karl.

Trump and those around him have long cited Orbán as an inspiration and seemingly sought to follow Orbán’s playbook as they use state powers to pursue rivals, embrace dark rhetoric to demonise political opponents, and purge “wokeness” from institutions.

In the lead-up to Hungary’s campaign, the US president directly intervened several times, calling on Hungarians to vote for Orbán. On Friday, two days before Hungarians were set to cast their ballots, Trump reiterated his endorsement of Orbán and vowed to bring US “economic might” to the country if Orbán was re-elected.

JD Vance, the US vice-president, also turned up in Budapest last week to rally behind Orbán, with Vance dialling up Trump at one point so that he could offer a glowing endorsement of the Hungarian prime minister via speakerphone. “I love Hungary and I love that Viktor,” Trump told the crowd. “He’s done a fantastic job.”

Trump told ABC that he did not know if the outcome of the election would have been different had he travelled to Hungary in Vance’s place. “[Orbán] was behind substantially,” said Trump. “I wasn’t that involved in this one.”

He noted, however, that Magyar was a former member of Orbán’s Fidesz party and had similar views on migration. “I think he’s going to be good.”

Since the election Vance has portrayed his two-day visit to Budapest as a show of support for a loyal ally.

“We certainly knew there was a very big chance that Viktor would lose that election,” Vance told Fox News earlier this week. “We went because it was the right thing to do to stand behind a person who had stood by us for a very long time,” citing Orbán as one of the few European leaders who had sought to protect American interests within the EU.

Vance described Orbán’s legacy in Hungary – which in the past year included an attempt to ban Pride events, accusations of sharing confidential EU information with Russia and efforts to further clamp down on independent media and NGOs – as “transformational”.

While Vance said that he was certain the US administration would work “very well” with the next prime minister of Hungary, he said Orbán had been a “good partner” to both him and Trump personally. “I’m sad that he lost.”