Magyar’s Rule of Law Chainsaw Risks Cutting Down the Roots

Is Péter Magyar about to break the rule of law while restoring it in Hungary?

Hungary’s Prime Minister Péter Magyar has done the seemingly impossible – his upstart centre-right party TISZA dealt a stunning electoral blow to the former PM Viktor Orbán and his right-wing nationalist party Fidesz, ending 16 years of their rule in Hungary. With a constitutional supermajority in the parliament, Magyar has set his sights on unlocking frozen EU funds and undoing the governance system established by Orbán.

The clock is ticking on getting the EU funds home, as Orbán’s stubborn refusal to fully meet the European Commission’s requirements for releasing the funds has left a chunk of the money with a close, looming expiration date, risking a permanent loss of significant funds for a country whose economy, in particular its public spending and health care, is in dire straits. Recent developments, such as the visit to Orbán’s party’s data centre in an embezzlement probe, raise the crucial question even more: can Magyar fix the rule of law without breaking it, or is he going too fast and too furious in his attempts to dismantle the entrenched remnants of Orbán’s era?