Magyar calls out former leading Fidesz politicians by name in opening remarks in Parliament

The first regular session of the new Hungarian Parliament was held on Tuesday. This was the first time after sixteen years that Fidesz representatives spoke from the opposition benches. It was also the first time that Tisza’s newcomer MPs and ministers had the opportunity to address the body.

The session began with the opening remarks of the Prime Minister. Péter Magyar started by reminding the MPs that they are there “to represent every Hungarian citizen". He urged the representatives to bear in mind their historical responsibility toward the Hungarian people. “Every Hungarian citizen has the right to be served by their representatives” the Prime Minister said, urging them to view their work as a service. To this end, he reiterated his government’s intention to lower the salaries of the Prime Minister and all the ministers, and to eliminate unnecessary political expenditures, to review diplomatic passports issued by the previous administration, as well as to propose a reduction in the salaries of members of parliament.

According to him, over the next four years, this will save the Hungarian people the equivalent of one full year’s worth of costs. He believes, however, that even more could be saved, since the budget does not necessarily have to be fully utilized—and some funds can be left unused, Magyar noted, addressing Fidesz MPs in particular.“People who want to get rich off this job should not become politicians, nor should they stay in this chamber,” he said.

He continued with briefly introducing the amendments the body will be discussing over the next two days, and said that the amendment to the Fundamental Law, stipulating that a prime minister may only serve two terms, was submitted with the authorization of millions of Hungarians. Magyar added that they would later like to limit the number of terms for other elected offices as well. He believes this is necessary.

so that “the elected leader is compelled to look beyond themselves and consider those who may come after them.”

The Prime Minister noted that while reviewing the documentation at the various ministries following the handover, they have already identified several commitments worth hundreds of millions of forints from the past two years, which have no financial backing; for example, contracts worth more than one trillion forints were discovered at the Ministry of Defense. In his view, the Hungarian people have a right to know the state in which they found the country.

Here, he answered those who have recently criticized his government and are saying that spending time uncovering this legacy is not governance. Magyar believes that uncovering these matters is both their moral and legal obligation. It follows from this that they will ensure full transparency in every case of corruption and abuse of power, which is why they are initiating the setting up of several parliamentary committees of inquiry: there will be a committee on the pardon scandal, the suspicion of malfeasance at the Central Bank (known as the MNB-case), spontaneous privatization, and the shortcomings of child protection, among others.

According to Magyar, Hungarian people have the right to know who became rich and who assisted on some of these cases.

He also reiterated the Tisza government’s commitment to abolish the public trust foundations, (which were set up behind 21 Hungarian universities by the Orbán government, and which led to these institutions being excluded from the EU’s Erasmus and Horizon education programs), because Hungarian universities and research institutes must represent the Hungarian people.

They will also abolish the Sovereignty Protection Office, which only served to harass those critical of the government, although he believes it was even unsuitable for that purpose. "That office was not serving and protecting Hungarian interests, but Russian ones…" Magyar said.

Towards the end of his speech, the Prime Minister did not hold back, and

he called out several former Fidesz ministers-some of whom were sitting in the room-by name, and criticized them for some of their actions while they were in office.

He concluded by saying that his government will represent everyone, including those who voted for Fidesz. Magyar also stated that he would like to see Fidesz MPs be honest with their constituents and take responsibility for their actions. According to Magyar, his government's task right now is to make politics a service once again, rather than a tool for oppressing the nation, so that the Hungarian state would once again be on the side of those who work, study, raise children, run businesses, or need help or healing.