In a significant development for Hungary’s ongoing effort to dismantle the political legacy of former Prime Minister Viktor Orban, law enforcement officials have arrested two prominent former ministers on corruption charges. The move signals the first tangible progress under Prime Minister Peter Magyar’s “Operation Purgatory,” an initiative launched in June 2026 aimed at rooting out systemic graft and recovering misappropriated state assets.
During his election campaign, Magyar pledged to “liquidate Orban’s mafia state,” vowing to investigate past abuses and hold accountable those who profited from the previous administration. Despite early skepticism due to the slow pace of action—marked by the cutoff of certain funds to Orban-aligned businesses but a lack of high-profile purges—the arrests of Balazs Hanko and Miklos Sesztak represent a notable shift.
Impeachable Offenses
On Monday, Magyar’s Tisza Party utilized its parliamentary supermajority to strip the legal immunity of both men, allowing prosecutors to proceed. Hanko, a member of Orban’s Fidesz party and former minister of culture and innovation, faces allegations of illegal party financing. Authorities accuse him of unlawfully directing approximately 50 million euros from the National Cultural Fund toward election campaigns and propaganda efforts between 2025 and 2026.
Miklos Sesztak, the former development minister and a member of the Christian Democratic People’s Party (KDNP), is a much larger target. As one of Hungary’s wealthiest legislators, Sesztak has been embroiled in corruption scandals for over a decade. He is accused of accepting roughly 30 million euros in bribes between 2015 and 2018 in exchange for favorable contracts involving the state-owned bus company Volanbusz and various construction projects.
Dramatic Arrests in Budapest
The execution of the warrants played out publicly and chaotically. Sesztak complied immediately, turning himself in at the prosecutor’s office upon the lifting of his immunity and entering pretrial detention. Hanko, however, chose to remain inside the Parliament building, accompanied by his wife and four children, effectively barricading himself until evening.
Parliament Speaker Agnes Forsthoffer eventually issued a written order demanding Hanko’s departure. Once he exited the building, he was met by Fidesz lawmakers protesting what they termed Magyar’s “arbitrary rule.” The scene was livestreamed on Orban’s Facebook page, where a misunderstanding led to Hanko’s driver departing without him, forcing the former minister to chase after his vehicle on camera before the feed cut out. Hungarian media later confirmed that Hanko was also placed in pretrial detention.
Prime Minister’s Gamble
Earlier that day, Magyar addressed the assembly with a pointed speech contrasting minor personal transgressions with large-scale state corruption. In a calculated public relations maneuver, Magyar also had his own immunity lifted regarding a separate incident classified as theft. In June 2024, he threw a bystander’s phone into the Danube River after it was used to film him without consent at a nightclub. While intended to demonstrate that no one is above the law, conviction in this case could cost him his parliamentary seat.
“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?” Magyar asked legislators, emphasizing the scale of the alleged financial crimes.
Ongoing Institutional Conflicts
Tensions also persist regarding the independence of the justice system. Magyar has accused top prosecutorial leadership of shielding the Orban regime, leading to a stalemate over the appointment of a new Prosecutor General. The Tisza faction blocked President Andras Baka’s nominee, Zoltan Szathmary, due to familial ties to an ongoing investigation into the “Gold Convoy” affair—a controversial 2026 operation where Ukrainian legal funds and gold were seized, sparking allegations of political motivation.
While public opinion polls indicate a majority of Hungarians view the Orban era as structurally corrupt, legal experts are urging caution. Attorney Gyorgy Magyar, a prominent human rights lawyer, called for “prudence, patience, calm, discipline, and professionalism,” warning that the new government must ensure its reckoning adheres strictly to the rule of law rather than devolving into political spectacle.
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