Trump distances himself now from Orbán and supports Magyar: "I think the new man will do a good job"

BarcelonaDonald Trump distanced himself this Wednesday from Viktor Orbán, three days after his resounding defeat in the legislative elections, and said he likes the president-elect, Péter Magyar, although he did not name him. "I think the new guy will do a good job," he said in an interview with ABC News. During the election campaign, the US president called on Hungarians to "get out and vote" for his friend. He even participated, remotely, in one of his rallies just a week ago. He did so with a call from the phone of his vice president, J.D. Vance, who traveled to Budapest to support the ultraconservative leader.

This Wednesday, however, he assured: "I didn't get too involved in this (campaign)." And he said that there probably wouldn't have been much difference if he had personally gone to Hungary to campaign for Orbán, because "he was far behind" in voting intentions. "But Viktor is a good man," he added.

Péter Magyar, leader of the conservative Tisza party, swept the elections, which have put an end to 16 years of Orbán's governments. This Wednesday, the President of Hungary, Tamás Sulyok, announced that he will officially propose Magyar as the new prime minister and that he will convene the constitutive session of Parliament "as soon as possible." Magyar reiterated that he would like the first session of the new Parliament to be on May 4, the day the definitive results are expected to be published, but he believes it will be later, between May 6 and 12.

The new Hungarian leader also said he has asked Sulyok to resign, arguing that in recent years he has not prevented corruption and the erosion of the democratic system. Magyar believes that the president, a man close to Orbán, "is not worthy of representing the unity of the Hungarian nation." "He is not fit to serve as a moral authority or a role model," he added. The president, he said, responded ambiguously, but told him that he "will consider the arguments" he had presented.

Sulyok was elected two years ago by a Parliament dominated by Fidesz, so his term does not end until 2029. But Magyar stated that, if he does not resign, his party's absolute majority will make the necessary legal amendments to remove him from power.

After receiving the winner of the elections, the president also met with Orbán and with the leader of La Nostra Pàtria, the far-right leader who also managed to gain representation in a Parliament where there is no left-wing or centrist party. Magyar has posted a video on social media in which he is seen next to Sulyok on the balcony of the presidential palace, while Viktor Orbán is on the balcony of his office, in a building next door.

Suspension of public media

One of the future prime minister's objectives is to restore press freedom and media plurality in the country. This Wednesday he announced that, once he forms a government, he will "suspend" the news service of public television, which he accused of being a propaganda machine for Fidesz.

"Let's not misunderstand, this is not personal revenge (...) this is not about me, but about the fact that Hungarians deserve public media that disseminates the truth," he said in an interview on the same public television, M1, after also giving one on public radio Kossuth. Orbán appeared weekly in the public media, while opposition politicians were generally banned. "Great, to be here after a year and a half," Magyar said at the start of the interview.

"After forming the government, one of the first measures will be to suspend the news service of this propaganda outlet," announced the leader of Tisza, who accused the public media of having operated in a way "that Goebbels [Hitler's Propaganda Minister] and North Korea would have loved".

In the first press conference Magyar held the day after the elections, he gave the floor, first and foremost, to independent Hungarian media, critical of Orbán, which the government has tried to silence for the last decade and a half.