Speaking at a press conference, Magyar confirmed that the party has proposed May 9 for the session, scheduling it on a weekend to maximise public attendance. He said the "outgoing president" had suggested May 7–8, but the Tisza Party's proposal for the weekend was accepted by the parliamentary groups.

He also proposed that parliament elect the prime minister during the inaugural session, with the oath of office to be taken on the same day - a practice not seen since 1990. Magyar added that his proposals had been accepted by the parliamentary groups.

During negotiations, Gergely Gulyas, the current head of the Prime Minister's Office, requested that ministerial hearings begin no later than Tuesday following the prime minister's election.

"We want to avoid an interregnum where I'm called prime minister but the Orban government remains in place," Magyar said, emphasising that his party aims for a swift transition to the new government.

The future prime minister expressed hope for a return to substantive, professional political debates in parliament. He said Tisza intended to operate differently from previous governing majorities, offering greater flexibility and more opportunities to opposition parties, even though the current opposition had fewer MPs than its predecessors.

"In the temple of Hungarian democracy," he said, "we will ensure that the opposition's rights are always protected, so that sessions are not dominated by debates over fines imposed on opposition MPs."

Magyar acknowledged that "sharp exchanges will occur" but pledged that his party would never undermine the human dignity, professionalism, or integrity of any individual -- whether Viktor Orban or any Fidesz MP.

He noted that the final number of Tisza Party MPs will be decided on Saturday, with expectations of up to 142 seats. Magyar proposed that every parliamentary group should have a deputy speaker, and while Gulyas suggested treating the Fidesz-KDNP as a single bloc, the Tisza Party would consider them separately.

The party has proposed establishing 20 parliamentary committees, aligned with the current government structure. Some committees, he added, would be renamed or streamlined, and the official list will be submitted to parliament's administration on Friday.

Magyar expressed confidence that a compromise would be reached among the groups on these issues, recalling that in 2022, no agreement was reached, and the committees were decided based on a proposal by then-Speaker Laszlo Kover.

"We want to avoid this, even if the new speaker has a different style and approach," he said.

Magyar also confirmed that no one had objected to the Our Homeland party's proposals for MPs to take their oath before the Holy Crown and for the Szekely and Hungarian anthems to be played.

He added that while the current discussions focused on standing committees, Our Homeland had also proposed a special investigative committee to examine the alleged theft of assets from the National Bank of Hungary.

He said Tisza supported this, and Our Homeland could count on their backing, as they lacked the numbers to establish such a committee alone.

"They have fewer MPs than Snow White has dwarfs," Magyar quipped.

He emphasised the importance of transparency in establishing investigative committees for any issue requiring scrutiny.

Meanwhile, Magyar said Tisza had received a financial report from the parliament's director-general detailing previous allowances and benefits for MPs and groups.

"The figures showed utterly shocking levels of spending," he said, pledging to end the "reckless squandering of money" and significantly reduce expenditures.

He cited examples such as MPs receiving an additional 10 million forints per month on top of their salaries for expenses such as phone usage.

"Over this parliamentary cycle, 100–120 billion forints were spent on such allowances," he noted, adding that Fidesz, as the largest group, benefited the most. MPs could waive these funds and transfer them to their parliamentary group, and Magyar claimed that Fidesz had done so, effectively funneling the money to "the Fidesz criminal organisation".

"Given that we are inheriting an empty treasury, we need everything -- except more reckless spending," he declared.

Negotiations will resume at 9am on Tuesday, he said.

Regarding the European Commission delegation arriving in Hungary on Friday afternoon, Magyar confirmed that Ursula von der Leyen's chief of staff and several director-generals were scheduled to attend. The Hungarian delegation will include Anita Orban, Istvan Kapitany, Andras Karman, and Magyar himself.

The PM-elect said that even before the government is formed, efforts are under way to map out the conditions under which the parliament can legislate within tight deadlines.

While some of the European institutions' demands had been met, others remained open, he added, referring to anti-corruption measures, judicial independence, press freedom, ending state funding for "propaganda", and restoring university autonomy.

"We are working to address these issues swiftly," Magyar said.

Magyar said he expected constructive negotiations to be continued on Saturday, but noted time constraints with regard to the very short time available before a deadline concerning access for "many billion of euros" in EU funds expiring on August 31.

He highlighted that both Ursula von der Leyen and he had asked for as many disputes and issues to be closed as possible, so that "we can strike a political agreement" on the first trip to Brussels.

Asked about the president, Magyar said candidates had not been discussed because "first there must be a resignation … not only by the president of the republic".

Concerning public media foundation MTVA staff applauding him, and the future of the public media, Magyar said he had no authority "to determine what responsibility each employee had".

The MTVA chief "convicted of making fake news is obviously responsible," he said, adding that "obviously the person who goes by the name Pitbull is also responsible, as well as many other leaders." 

He added that they had received a lot of inquiries from public media employees in the past two years concerning "abuses of power, overpricing, propaganda meetings" and "manual control" by the Prime Minister's Office.

He also suggested that expectations and instructions "trickled down from the PM's Office to the public media". Many people work in the public media "without having any meaningful influence", he said adding that "a cameraman or an editor had no influence on the propaganda broadcast."

"Obviously, their responsibility is not equal, but this will have to be determined by the new leadership," he said. This is true not only for MTVA, but also for many state institutions, ministries, and background institutions "that people do not want to take responsibility for the abuses or crimes committed by political appointees."

Magyar also said he had received information concerning documents being destroyed in the defence and foreign ministries, at the National Judicial Office and at "many background institutions, including NER companies."

"Destroying documents, especially if they are classified, is a very serious crime," he said and called on people witnessing such activities to report them.

In response to another question, he said Tisza had been contacted by the outgoing government and handover was underway, but added that "we will see the budget situation when we get there." "It is clear that the deficit has not been as high since 1990 as it was in the first three months of this year," he said. 

"We will need to adopt a solid, value-based budget as soon as possible, one whose figures can be maintained, one that inspires confidence in investors and the population, and one that also incorporates Tisza's commitments," he said.

Magyar said he would resign from his mandate as a member of the European Parliament before taking up his Hungarian MP's mandate.

Meanwhile, Magyar said he had met with Zsolt Hernadi, the head of MOL on Thursday, and requested detailed information on strategic oil reserves, potential supply difficulties, and the sustainability of the controlled fuel prices.

He added that he had called on the outgoing government to extend provisions for the excise tax reduction and controlled fuel prices until the end of May.

The Druzhba oil pipeline is expected to resume operations next week, Magyar said, adding that Hernadi would make a trip to Russia to discuss a number of issues, for instance that it was not enough to restart the pipeline but "there must also be oil in it."

Meanwhile, he said oil was arriving via the Adria pipeline, and Mol estimates that there will be no supply problems either in the near future or in the medium term. He added that he had informed Hernadi that the Tisza government would maintain the currently controlled prices in the coming months.

Magyar said he had discussed with Hernadi the dividend to be paid to MCC, adding that MOL would propose that a dividend should be paid in the third quarter. He added that he would contact Richter's CEO on a similar matter.

On another subject, Magyar said the new parliament would have a committee on social participation, so that representatives of various groups could present their opinion on a given proposal.

"Tisza has acted transparently during its nominations, and intends to do so in the future," Magyar said.

He warned against rumours and cited an example that in relation to the education ministry: "they are trying to drag an unannounced lady, who is otherwise considered by many to be a very good professional, into the mud, without even knowing the person and without her having been able to speak out on the matter."

"So far, a retired police officer has been in charge of education, healthcare, social affairs and child protection in Hungary," he said, adding that under his party's government, they would have the most suitable candidates for every position, the ones who best embody national unity."

 He said that no nominations had been made for several positions as yet, including the education minister, adding that further nominations would be made next week.

He also said that at Friday's talks Tisza had not make proposals for parliamentary officials, but added that "I am not afraid that there will be no consensus," indicating that proposals would also be made next week.

Parliament to convene expected on May 9

The inaugural meeting of the new parliament is expected to be held on May 9, Prime Minister-elect Peter Magyar told a press conference after preparatory talks on Friday.

MTI Stock Photo

Source: MTI – Hungary’s national news agency since 1881. While MTI articles are usually factual, some may contain political bias, and readers should be aware that such content does not reflect the position of XpatLoop, which is neutral and independent.

Since the goal of XpatLoop is to keep readers well briefed, right across the spectrum of opinions, MTI items are shared to ensure readers are aware of all narratives within the local media.

XpatLoop believes in empowering readers to form their own views through complete and comprehensive coverage. To facilitate this XpatLoop has a balanced range of news partners, as you can see when you surf around XpatLoop.com

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