One of the main commitments of the new Hungarian government was to investigate corruption under Viktor Orban, recover embezzled assets and hold those responsible to account. Or, in the words of Prime Minister Peter Magyar, it is time to “liquidate Orban’s mafia state.” During his electoral campaign, Magyar had already announced a “path to prison program”. As Prime Minister, he launched “Operation Purgatory” at the end of June 2026.
Judging by his combative speech, little has happened so far. There have been no sweeping purges of the state apparatus, although some government funds intended for Orban-aligned businessmen have been cut. Police and prosecutors summoned a handful of relatively unknown individuals for questioning, and a few people were arrested. The government majority also created an agency responsible for recovering assets, but it is not yet operational.
But earlier this week, Hungarians witnessed the first significant development in the accounts promised with the Orban system. Two prominent lawmakers and former ministers have been arrested over corruption allegations.
On Monday, Magyar’s Tisza parliamentary party used its two-thirds majority to lift the immunity of two MPs from Orban’s opposition camp: Balazs Hanko, a former minister of Culture and Innovation and an MP from Orban’s Fidesz party, and Miklos Sesztak, a former development minister and now an MP from the small Christian Democratic People’s Party (KDNP), affiliated with Fidesz since 2010. Both are the object of corruption. investigations.
Illegal financing of parties, corruption
Balazs Hanko was not among those who, in Orban’s system, enriched themselves on a large scale. But it is seen as a symbol of the standard practice under Orban of systematically using public money to finance the ruling party, Orban’s network of allies, election campaigns and propaganda efforts. Specifically, as minister, Hanko allegedly illegally allocated approximately €50 million from the National Cultural Fund (NKA), which he oversaw, in 2025 and 2026, including funds intended for election campaign purposes.
The case of Miklos Sesztak is different. He is one of Hungary’s richest lawmakers and has made headlines for more than a decade with his personal corruption scandals – another typical trait of the Orban system. As a minister, Sesztak allegedly accepted around 30 million euros ($34 million) in bribes with an accomplice between 2015 and 2018. The alleged payments related to contracts linked to Hungarian state bus company Volanbusz and the construction sector.
Barricaded in Parliament with his family
Sesztak went directly to the prosecutor’s office on Monday after his immunity was lifted, where he was placed in pre-trial detention. Balazs Hanko took a different path. He arrived at Parliament on Monday morning with his wife and four teenage children and, after his immunity was lifted, said he was waiting for authorities to make a decision. In practice, it turned out that he was barricading himself inside. Only after Parliament Speaker Agnes Forsthoffer formally ordered Hanko in writing that evening to leave the building, and he received a summons from the prosecutor’s office, did he finally head out, accompanied by his family and Fidesz MPs to protest what they called Magyar’s “arbitrary rule.”
The entire episode was broadcast live on Viktor Orban’s Facebook page. After Hanko said goodbye to his family outside, a misunderstanding occurred. The driver of his SUV, apparently believing Hanko was already inside the vehicle, left without him. Hanko ran after the SUV, and the livestream on Orban’s Facebook page was then interrupted. Later in the evening, Hungarian media reported that Hanko had also been remanded in custody.
Magyar Prime Minister’s immunity lifted
Earlier in the afternoon, Prime Minister Peter Magyar delivered a scathing speech in Parliament on the two cases. His own immunity had also been lifted beforehand – for a case classified in the archives as theft.
In June 2024, Magyar took the phone from a man who was filming him without permission at a nightclub and threw it into the Danube, where it was later found. Magyar had explicitly requested the lifting of his immunity in this case. It’s a calculated public relations move intended to show that the same standards apply to everyone. But it is also a risky move: if he is found guilty, Magyar could lose his seat in Parliament.
In his parliamentary speech, he offered Fidesz and KDNP lawmakers a striking comparison: “How many hundreds of thousands of phones would have to be thrown into the Danube to come close to the billions allegedly stolen by the Fidesz-KDNP mafia?
Dispute over Attorney General
Magyar also spoke forcefully about the Hungarian justice system. He praised rank-and-file judicial staff while criticizing the leadership of the prosecutor’s office, accusing them of repeatedly covering up corruption cases by portraying them as “collaborators of the Orban system.” At the center of the conflict is the fight over the appointment of a new attorney general.
The Tisza faction rejected Zoltan Szathmary, the candidate proposed by President Andras Baka, because his brother works for the Constitutional Protection Office and, as such, is a suspect in an ongoing politically sensitive case known as the “Golden Convoy” affair. In March 2026, Viktor Orban ordered the detention of a legal Ukrainian cash shipment. The escorts were arrested in dramatic fashion and cash and gold bars were seized. Orban and other Fidesz politicians have indirectly accused Magyar’s Tisza party of receiving funds from Ukraine. Several people involved in the operation are now under investigation for abuse of power. Orban himself is not currently participating in the debates, but may do so in the future.
Hungarians want a quick settlement
Although Magyar has formally emphasized the independence of the judiciary, his comments in current debates give the impression that he is preempting judicial decisions or getting too deeply involved. At the same time, many Hungarians expect a speedy judgment – and public debate often returns to the question of how people want to “hear the sound of handcuffs”. A recent poll found that a large majority of Hungarians view Orban’s old order as “systemically corrupt” and a “mafia state.”
Overall, Magyar and his government face the challenge of balancing the rule of law and public expectations. Many former Orban critics are also calling for the record of the Orban system to be addressed properly. Prominent lawyer Gyorgy Magyar, for example, who has represented people in numerous human rights and rule of law cases under Orban, called for “caution, patience, calm, discipline and professionalism” in an interview with the Hirklikk news outlet.
Questions remain over whether “Operation Purgatory” will be a mere spectacle or whether the justice system will investigate corruption cases independently and with respect for the rule of law.
This article was originally published in German.
Gn world
