©picture alliance / Anadolu | Dursun Aydemir
Hungarian civil rights activists made a strange find after it became known that Péter Magyar won the Hungarian elections.
Péter Magyar, leader of the Tisza party, successfully challenged Viktor Orban, breaking an important political chapter in Hungarian politics. Orban was head of government for as many as 16 years uninterrupted, leading it for a total of 20 years. But that came to an end after his former ally won the election.
After all, opposition leader Péter Magyar used to be part of Orban's party, but stepped out, firmly opposed and, with his Tisza party, won the parliamentary elections in April with a large majority.
A symbol of Hungary's political change, Magyar openly fights against corruption and wants to return to a European course. According to his party, however, it seems that every effort is being made to ensure that any evidence of Russian interference within Hungarian politics in recent decades must disappear. For example, just after the elections, Hungarian civil rights activists reportedly found bags full of shredded documents among the garbage of the Foreign Ministry in Budapest. After all, according to the same civil rights activists, the outgoing foreign minister is rushing to destroy evidence of Russian influence. Election winner Péter Magyar is already calling for searching in and around ministries for discarded documents.
However, Hungary has long-term energy contracts with Russia and both countries cooperate intensively in the economic field. Thus, breaking all these carefully put in place and year-long cooperation agreements in one go could have particularly big consequences for Hungary. Péter Magyar's new course will thus have to explain to the Hungarian people why their energy would become more expensive if the collaborations with Russia were to be scrapped. After all, the European Union requires member states to stop buying Russian oil and gas by the end of 2027. Insiders expect, given the clear stance of Magyar and his party, that Hungary will ask for a postponement of that deadline. After all, Russian gas and their oil are still cheaper than European alternatives.
©picture alliance / Anadolu | Dursun Aydemir