Hungary's incoming prime minister and the internet's favourite tour guide, Péter Magyar, made his much-anticipated debut on the Brussels scene this week. The timing is notable, as he had promised to visit Vienna and Warsaw first. But when Brussels calls, you go.
Why? He needs cash soon—or rather, Hungary is racing to secure billions in EU funds blocked under Viktor Orbán ahead of an August deadline. If Magyar does not strike a broad agreement with the EU institutions by then, €10 billion tied to the post-pandemic recovery fund handled by the Commission could go to waste. For an economy the size of Hungary, the amount is significant.
By now, there is no need to explain that Magyar cares about the vibes, the visuals, and that it all gets documented on social media. His Facebook posts and TikTok videos served him well during the campaign, as his Tisza Party crushed Fidesz in the 12 April election. And that is all we journalists got from the visit. Magyar took no questions and did not address the press beyond a photo op with top EU bosses Ursula von der Leyen and António Costa. (I tried to join the photographers’ pool, but I showed up without a camera. How inconvenient!)
A Tisza Party official told us that Magyar will take questions from Brussels reporters, but that “now isn’t the time". Why? Because technically, he is not yet the prime minister (he will return to Brussels on 25 May as PM and then attend his first European Council in June) and strictly speaking cannot handle official Brussels business. But the visit was more than a formality; it was a necessity.
The new government will have less than four months to undo years of clashes, spats and blocked funds under Orbán. Both sides say they are on the right track and described the talks as “highly productive" (Brussels jargon to say it went relatively well). But they also agree that important obstacles remain.
For Magyar, the challenge is twofold.
He will have to deal with the often brutally bureaucratic machinery of the European Commission, which speaks in “machine-says-no” English, achieved milestones, and regulatory amendments. For that, the 45-year-old, who has never held a high-level political job, is leaning on Anita Orbán, his future foreign minister, who bears no relation to that other Orbán.
As I wrote in the first edition of Off the Record, back in February, Anita Orbán accompanied Magyar during his meetings at the Munich Security Conference where she made a good impression as someone who knows her stuff. In Munich, Magyar also held a bilateral meeting with the Polish delegation led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk, which should come in handy, as Warsaw is where Magyar will be looking for inspiration on the road ahead.
His team has already indicated, as Euronews first reported, that it will review and audit plans sent to Brussels by Orbán for a major defence programme financed through low-interest loans backed by the Commission, with €17 billion at stake. Tisza fears the original draft may have misused allocated funding. In any case, the plan has not yet been approved by the European Commission, which coincidentally chose to put it on hold until after the election result.
As you know, the Commission likes to say funding is based merit, but the truth is that money is also political. For Magyar, that means working with the EU while not being perceived as a yes-man to von der Leyen. In fact, while he vowed that “soon” the cash will arrive in Hungary, he also said it will not come at the expense of national interest. That is very much a message to his domestic audience, and it is quite revealing of the tensions he will have to navigate.
For the Commission, which has been busy briefing that the cash will not come for free and that goodwill must be matched by reforms when it comes to rule of law, the optics of the deal are also important. Brussels will have to show that if billions of euros are handed to Budapest, there is merit for it.
There is a path, but also a cautionary tale from the Polish case.
The Commission approved €137 billion in EU funding in 2024, just months after Tusk returned to government as a committed pro-European Pole and the antithesis of the Kaczyński-led Law and Justice (PiS). Fast-forward to 2026, and Tusk is struggling to make good on his election promises, largely as a result of presidential vetoes controlled by Law and Justice. With Hungary, the Commission does not want to see a repeat of the same scenario.
If you ask me, Hungary will get the cash this summer, and if it cannot unlock the full envelope, it will be granted a partial extension because money is politics. For both, this is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reset the troubled relationship between Hungary and the European Union. The fact that both sides are saying it will be tough only confirms my thesis. In Brussels, a deal has to be seen as being difficult— at the Berlaymont and back home. It’s all part of the deal. | 
