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(CN) — Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar scored his first major win Friday after Brussels unlocked billions of dollars withheld from former far-right Prime Minister Viktor Orbán due to corruption and democratic erosion.
Citing Magyar’s embrace of the European Union and anti-corruption measures, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said 16.4 billion euros ($19.1 billion) in EU funds slated for Budapest would be released, a sum equal to about 13% of Hungary’s budget.
“These are strong signals that Hungary is turning the page,” von der Leyen said. “In only a few weeks, you have driven forward long overdue reforms.”
Magyar, a former Orbán ally turned whistleblower, ended Orbán’s 16-year reign when he won parliamentary elections on April 12 in a landslide. His victory was a huge relief for Brussels, which had spent years quarreling with Orbán.
“If every time I come here, I go back with this amount of money, I’d be coming here more often,” Magyar quipped, speaking at a news conference with von der Leyen.
“Three or four weeks were enough for us to complete what the previous government of Viktor Orbán could not accomplish,” he said. “Or maybe they did not want to accomplish it.”
The funds are a much-needed boost for Magyar because Hungary’s economy has slowed in recent years. They’ll also help Magyar fulfill election promises. In defeating Orbán, Magyar traveled the country and highlighted broken infrastructure, underfunded schools and understaffed hospitals.
His newly founded Tisza party has a supermajority in the Hungarian National Assembly, giving it the power to push through sweeping changes and throw out many of Orbán’s controversial laws. Von der Leyen said the release of the funds remained contingent on Hungary making needed changes.
Starting in late 2022, Brussels began freezing billions of dollars in funds meant for both Hungary and Poland as a tool to force far-right and anti-Brussels governments in both countries to comply with EU court decisions, rules and laws.
At the time, withholding funds was a novel and powerful tool for Brussels as it accused the Law and Justice party in Poland and Orbán’s Fidesz in Hungary of democratic backsliding. The funding freezes played a role in ending far-right rule in both places too.
In early 2024, Brussels unlocked 137 billion euros ($160 billion) in aid to Poland, only months after a pro-EU government under Prime Minister Donald Tusk took office and promised to pass reforms to comply with EU laws.
But the EU’s quick approval to release Poland’s funds has been criticized because Tusk’s government has not carried out the promised reforms. Mostly, his government has been hindered by a Polish president and courts aligned with Law and Justice.
But Von der Leyen said Magyar’s government had already done a lot to ensure the funds would be used properly.
She cited Hungary’s decision to join the European Public Prosecutor’s Office and to strengthen safeguards against corruption in public contracts. She added that Hungary had “made great progress on the protection of fundamental rights in Hungary, notably on academic freedom.”
However, Von der Leyen made it clear Magyar was being rewarded for his ardent pro-EU gestures too.
“Twelve April will stay in our memory for a very long time,” von der Leyen said, referring to the date of Orbán’s defeat. Hungarian voters, she said, “made a clear choice, they chose Europe and they chose democracy.”
“It has only been a few weeks,” she added. “But we can already feel a strong wind of change across Hungary.”
She praised Magyar for sending “powerful messages” by choosing to play Ludwig Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy,” the European anthem, at his swearing-in and returning the EU banner to the Hungarian Parliament.
“These are symbols that a new era is beginning for Hungary,” she said.
Von der Leyen said a further 500 million euros ($584 million) would be released once Hungary rolls back Orbán-era restrictions on LGBTQ rights, including a law that makes it illegal to portray or promote homosexuality or gender transition to under-18s.
Courthouse News reporter Cain Burdeau is based in the European Union.
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