loading . . . Magyar to Orbán’s fugitives: Gruevski, Ziobro, Romanowski – pack your bags Hungary’s incoming prime minister Péter Magyar used his first major international press conference after Tisza’s landslide victory to send one of his clearest foreign-policy signals yet: Budapest will rebuild strategic ties with Warsaw and “find a way” to hand over politically connected fugitives who found refuge under Viktor Orbán, including former North Macedonian premier Nikola Gruevski and two Polish politicians granted asylum in Hungary.
Magyar accused the outgoing government of having badly damaged the once-close Hungarian-Polish relationship through its alignment with Russian interests and personal political feuds. He said his first foreign trip as prime minister would be to Warsaw in early May, followed by Vienna and Brussels, as part of a rapid diplomatic reset aimed at restoring trust with key European partners.
For years, Budapest and Warsaw had been central pillars of conservative cooperation inside the EU, often coordinating on migration, sovereignty disputes and institutional battles with Brussels. That axis weakened dramatically as Poland’s domestic politics shifted and Orbán deepened his ties with Moscow. Magyar now appears intent on rebuilding the bilateral relationship on a new pro-European basis.
Speaking after Tisza’s overwhelming election win, Magyar said Hungarians had “written history” on 12 April, describing the result as a decisive mandate for systemic change after 16 years of Fidesz rule. With 3.3 million list votes and a projected 138 seats in the 199-member National Assembly, Tisza is comfortably above the two-thirds threshold required for constitutional amendments. Once expatriate and transferred ballots are counted later this week, the party expects to rise further to as many as 141 or 142 seats.
He framed the victory not simply as a partisan change of government, but as the rejection of an entrenched “state party” system built on propaganda, misuse of state institutions and the fusion of public administration with partisan interests. Magyar argued that without what he called a massive propaganda machine worth hundreds of billions of forints, Fidesz would have retained only a fraction of its parliamentary representation.
That supermajority, he made clear, will be used immediately for institutional overhaul. The first legislative package will include anti-corruption measures, Hungary’s accession process to the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, the creation of a National Asset Recovery and Protection Office, and constitutional term limits preventing anyone from serving as prime minister for more than eight years.
Magyar also escalated pressure over the handover, claiming to have “reliable internal information” that documents were already being destroyed inside the foreign ministry and other state-linked institutions. In one of his sharpest allegations, he said officials close to outgoing foreign minister Péter Szijjártó were shredding files linked to sanctions-related materials, framing the transfer of power as a race to secure what remains of the state archive.
The asset recovery office is expected to become one of the flagship tools of the new government. Magyar said it would review major corruption-sensitive dossiers from the past 16 to 20 years, including central bank losses, motorway and tobacco concessions, state advertising contracts, public procurement above 10 billion forints, the ventilator procurement scandal, and large-scale strategic energy and infrastructure agreements. The office would also examine the transfer of public assets to politically connected institutions and foundations.
The legal and diplomatic implications of his comments on asylum cases may prove equally significant. Magyar said Hungary “will not be a dumping ground for internationally wanted criminals”, a line clearly aimed at Orbán-era decisions that drew criticism from European partners. By explicitly mentioning Gruevski alongside former Polish justice minister Zbigniew Ziobro and his deputy Marcin Romanowski, Magyar tied domestic rule-of-law restoration to a broader European effort to rebuild judicial trust.
Publicly funded Hungarian foundation linked to Fidesz provides housing for fugitive Polish politician
Gruevski is the former longtime Prime Minister of North Macedonia (2006–2016) and leader of the nationalist VMRO-DPMNE party, who was convicted of corruption (including abuse of office in a luxury car purchase) and sentenced to prison in 2018, which he claimed was politically motivated. In November 2018, he fled North Macedonia days before starting his jail term, reportedly crossing into Albania and then traveling through other Balkan countries with assistance from Hungarian diplomats (and possibly intelligence), before reaching Budapest, where Orbán’s government granted him political asylum.
Zbigniew Ziobro, Poland’s former Justice Minister (2015–2023) and a key figure in the right-wing PiS government known for controversial judicial reforms, along with his deputy Marcin Romanowski (former deputy justice minister 2019–2023), fled to Hungary after facing multiple charges of corruption, abuse of power, and misuse of public funds from the Justice Fund (including alleged embezzlement for spyware purchases and favoring political allies), which they denounced as politically motivated persecution by the successor pro-EU government under Donald Tusk; Viktor Orbán granted them political asylum in late 2024 (Romanowski) and early 2026 (Ziobro) as ideological allies sharing nationalist and illiberal views, treating the cases as examples of lawfare against conservatives and straining relations with Warsaw.
Beyond Poland, the Tisza leader laid out a foreign policy centred on pragmatic but firmer European alignment. He reiterated that Hungary remains proud of its membership in both the EU and NATO, calling the Union fundamentally a peace project despite its shortcomings. He promised constructive engagement with Brussels rather than permanent confrontation, while insisting that Hungarian interests would be defended “honestly and robustly” in Strasbourg, Brussels, Moscow, Berlin, Washington and Beijing alike.
On Russia, Magyar signalled continuity in energy pragmatism but rupture in political tone. He said all major agreements, including the Paks nuclear expansion and energy supply contracts, would be reviewed and, if necessary, renegotiated. At the same time, he stressed that diversification – not abrupt disengagement from Russian oil and gas, would be the cornerstone of Hungary’s future energy security strategy.
Magyar also signalled a notable shift on Ukraine, stating that “everyone in Hungary knows Ukraine is the victim in this war” and stressing that Kyiv has every right to preserve its sovereignty and territorial integrity under the Budapest Memorandum. He said no outside power has the right to tell Ukraine which territories it should give up, a pointed contrast with rhetoric previously heard from Fidesz figures. At the same time, he linked any broader reset in bilateral ties to guarantees for the rights of the roughly 100,000 ethnic Hungarians living in Ukraine.
The domestic reform agenda is equally ambitious. Magyar promised separate ministries for health, education, environment and rural development, a restructured prime minister’s office, restored professional oversight of intelligence services, and an end to politically driven state propaganda financing. One of the first media-related measures, he said, would be suspending the news service of the public broadcaster until conditions for impartial reporting are restored.
For Brussels, the most immediate implication may be the prospect of unfreezing EU funds. Magyar pledged swift compliance with long-standing EU demands on judicial independence, anti-corruption safeguards, media pluralism and academic freedom. He warned that Hungary had already lost too much time – and too much money.
Budapest night of liberation: tens of thousands celebrate as Péter Magyar’s Tisza party ends Orbán’s 16-year rule
Sources: BGNES, mti.hu
Caption: Leader and prime ministerial candidate of the Hungarian opposition Tisza Party Peter Magyar holds a press conference in Budapest, Hungary, 13 April 2026. Tisza Party won Hungary’s parliamentary elections by obtaining two-thirds of the votes on 12 April. EPA/TIBOR ILLYES https://eualive.net/magyar-to-orbans-fugitives-gruevski-ziobro-romanowski-pack-your-bags/
