“Time To Step Down, Mr. President, While You Still Can!”: Magyar Openly Threatens President Sulyok In Prime Ministerial Inaugural Address

Lawmakers officially elected Peter Magyar prime minister at parliament’s inaugural session. Then, the new head of government took his oath of office.

Prime Minister Peter Magyar (Photo: Andras Peter Nemeth)

“We pledge to build a country where politics can give people hope, security and common goals,” he declared.

The prime minister said that one of the new parliament’s first acts would be to submit legislation establishing an office for the recovery and protection of national assets. “This office will be one of the most important institutions of the new government. Its task will be to uncover corruption,” he added. He stated that the office would not operate under the government, but would answer only to parliament.

According to PM Magyar, dozens of constitutional institutions had lost public trust in recent years, and he therefore called on the heads of those institutions to have the courage to confront their responsibility and resign. He specifically named President Tamas Sulyok and once again called on him to step down.

After directing threatening remarks at President Tamas Sulyok, Peter Magyar attempted to emphasize the importance of reconciliation. He then moved on to apologize, as prime minister, to several groups within Hungarian society. He argued that millions of people had been driven into fear, which, he promised, the Hungarian state would never again be allowed to do. He once again spoke about reuniting the nation and said that work must now begin.

“National reconciliation does not depend on a single law or a single speech. It depends on whether Hungarians will be capable of turning toward one another with trust again, whether they will once again assume good intentions in one another,” Peter Magyar said. He added that he believes Hungarians are capable of doing so.

In his speech, Peter Magyar promised that the Tisza government would govern on behalf of all Hungarians. He said they would build a country in which every person is respected.

He repeated his campaign pledge to bring home the European Union funds that rightfully belong to the Hungarian people. He declared that Hungary would remain a sovereign country. He then asked lawmakers to understand the message of the election and described Tisza Party’s two-thirds parliamentary majority as carrying especially great responsibility. Peter Magyar promised that they would also view their own power as something that must be limited. He announced that they would launch a comprehensive review of the constitutional system and initiate limits on the number of prime ministerial terms.

The prime minister then lashed out at Peter Agh, a Fidesz lawmaker from northern Vas County, describing his electoral victory in the district as manipulative.

Shifting away from the threatening tone, Peter Magyar once again spoke about national reunification, which he said was also a historic responsibility for the opposition. He repeated his promise to establish the national asset recovery office and once again pledged support for opening the communist-era secret police files.

– “Those sitting in opposition today also have a historic role. They must show voters that patriotic opposition politics can exist,” Peter Magyar said.

He also stated that freedom alone guarantees nothing, arguing that freedom is a grave responsibility toward the homeland, toward one another, and toward the kind of country left to future generations. “Freedom must be transformed into work,” he said.

At the end of the inaugural session, the Sukosdi Danubia Tambura Orchestra first performed the Roma anthem, followed by the folk song Spring Wind Brings Water. Lawmakers from the Our Homeland Movement left the chamber during the Roma anthem, as they had previously announced they would.

Photo: Andras Peter Nemeth

The inaugural session concluded with the singing of the Szózat, Beethoven’s Ode to Joy and the Hungarian national anthem.

Biography

Peter Magyar (Budapest, March 16, 1981) is a Hungarian politician, lawyer, diplomat, chairman of the Tisza Party and prime minister. He completed his studies at Pazmany Peter Catholic University, earning a law degree in 2004. From 2010, he worked at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and in 2011, during Hungary’s European Union presidency, he joined Hungary’s Permanent Representation to the European Union as a specialist diplomat.

From 2015, as a group leader diplomat at the Prime Minister’s Office, he was responsible for relations between the Hungarian government and the European Parliament. Beginning in September 2018, he headed the EU legal directorate of the Hungarian Development Bank, and from June 2019 until February 2022, he served as chief executive of the Student Loan Center. In August 2022, he became a board member of Hungarian Public Roads Nonprofit Ltd., and in April 2023, he joined the refreshed board of Volanbusz under Janos Lazar.

Following his break with the National Cooperation System (NER), Peter Magyar drew nationwide attention in February 2024 as the former husband of ex-justice minister Judit Varga. After the pardon scandal involving Katalin Novak, he announced that he was resigning from all government-related positions. On March 15, 2024, he announced plans to establish a political party, later taking over the previously little-known Tisza Party and running in the 2024 European Parliament elections. His party finished second behind Fidesz, winning nearly 30 percent of the vote. In the 2026 parliamentary election, the Tisza Party led by Peter Magyar secured a two-thirds majority in parliament, which elected him prime minister at its inaugural session on May 9.

Cover photo: Prime Minister Peter Magyar (Photo: Andras Peter Nemeth)