One of the new Hungarian government's key pledges was to investigate corruption under Viktor Orban, recover embezzled assets, and hold those responsible accountable.
asserted
those → investigate → assets
Or, in the words of Prime Minister Peter Magyar, it is time to "liquidate Orban's mafia state."
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it → liquidate → state
During his election campaign, Magyar had already announced a "program for the road to prison."
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Magyar → announce → prison
As prime minister, he launched "Operation Purgatory" at the end of June 2026.
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he → launch → June
Measured against his fighting talk, little has happened so far.
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little → measure → talk
There have been no sweeping purges of the state apparatus, although some government funds flowing to Orban-aligned businessmen have been cut off.
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funds → flow → businessmen
Police and prosecutors have summoned a handful of relatively unknown individuals for questioning, and a few people were arrested.
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people → summon → questioning
The governing majority also established an agency to recover assets, but it is is not yet up and running.
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it → govern → assets
But at the beginning of the week, Hungarians witnessed the first significant development in the promised reckoning with the Orban system.
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Hungarians → witness → system
Two prominent lawmakers and former ministers were arrested over corruption allegations.
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lawmakers → arrest → allegations
On Monday, Magyar's Tisza Party parliamentary faction used its two-thirds majority to lift the immunity of two lawmakers from the opposition Orban camp: Balazs Hanko, formerly minister for culture and innovation and a lawmaker from Orban's Fidesz party, and Miklos Sesztak, a former development minister who is now a lawmaker for the small Christian Democratic People's Party (KDNP), which has been a Fidesz affiliate since 2010.
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which → use → 2010
Illegal party financing, bribery
Balazs Hanko was not among those in Orban's system who enriched themselves on a large scale.
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who → enrich → scale
But he is seen as a symbol of the common practice under Orban of systematically using public money to fund the ruling party, Orban's network of allies, election campaigns, and propaganda efforts.
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he → see → allies
Specifically, as minister, Hanko allegedly unlawfully allocated around 50 million euros from the National Cultural Fund (NKA), which he oversaw, in 2025 and 2026, including funds intended for election campaign purposes.
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he → allocate → purposes
He is one of the wealthiest lawmakers in Hungary and has made headlines for more than a decade with his personal corruption scandals — another typical trait of the Orban system.
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He → make → system
As minister, Sesztak allegedly accepted around €30 million ($34 million) in bribes with an accomplice between 2015 and 2018.
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Sesztak → accept → 2015
The alleged payments involved contracts related to the state-owned Hungarian bus company Volanbusz and the construction sector.
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payments → involve → company
Barricaded in parliament with his family
Sesztak went straight to the prosecutor's office on Monday after his immunity was lifted, where he was taken into pretrial detention.
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he → barricade → detention
Balazs Hanko took a different route.
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Hanko → take → route
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 the authorities to make a decision.
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authorities → arrive → decision
In practice, it appeared that he was barricading himself inside.
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he → appear → himself
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 for the exit, accompanied by his family and Fidesz lawmakers protesting what they called Magyar's "arbitrary rule."
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they → order → what
The entire episode was livestreamed on Viktor Orban's Facebook page.
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episode → livestreame → page
After Hanko said goodbye to his family outside, a misunderstanding occurred.
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misunderstanding → say → family
His SUV driver, apparently believing Hanko was already inside the vehicle, drove off without him.
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Hanko → believe → him
Hanko ran after the SUV, and the livestream on Orban's Facebook page then cut out.
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livestream → run → page
Later that evening, Hungarian media reported that Hanko had also been placed in pretrial detention.
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Hanko → report → detention
Prime Minister Magyar's immunity lifted
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immunity → lift → ?
Earlier that afternoon, Prime Minister Peter Magyar delivered a sharp speech in Parliament on the two cases.
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Magyar → deliver → cases
His own immunity had also been lifted beforehand — over a case that is classified in the records as theft.
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that → lift → theft
In June 2024, Magyar took a phone from a man who had been filming him without permission at a nightclub and threw it into the Danube, where it was later found.
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it → take → Danube
Magyar had explicitly asked for his immunity to be lifted in the case.
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immunity → ask → case
It is a calculated PR move intended to show that the same standards apply to everyone.
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standards → intend → everyone
But it is also a risky maneuver — if convicted, Magyar could lose his seat in Parliament.
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Magyar → convict → Parliament
In his parliamentary speech, he offered Fidesz and KDNP lawmakers a stark comparison: "How many hundreds of thousands of phones would you have to throw into the Danube to come close to the trillions allegedly stolen by the Fidesz-KDNP mafia?"
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you → offer → mafia
Dispute over Prosecutor General
Magyar has also spoken forcefully about Hungary's justice system.
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Magyar → speak → system
He has praised rank-and-file judicial employees while criticizing the leadership of the prosecutor's office, accusing them of repeatedly covering up corruption cases as "collaborators of the Orban system."
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He → praise → system
The Tisza faction rejected Zoltan Szathmary, the candidate proposed by President Andras Baka, because his brother works for the Office for Constitutional Protection and, in that role, is a suspect in an ongoing politically sensitive case known as the "Gold Convoy" affair.
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brother → reject → affair
In March 2026, Viktor Orban ordered the detention of a legal Ukrainian money shipment.
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Orban → order → shipment
The escorts were arrested in dramatic fashion, and cash and gold bars were seized.
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cash → arrest → fashion
…and 11 more, not listed.
The Aporia
