Anti-corruption efforts shifted to a higher gear

HUNGARY - In Brief 18 Sep 2026 by Istvan Racz

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The draft budget for 2027 will be presented to the Fiscal Council, from which point it can be regarded as publicly known, on October 17, PM Magyar said today. For the average citizen, that plan will include good news and bad news alike, but possibly more bad than good, given the conflict between existing heightened public expectations and the need to start fiscal consolidation. Not at all independently, the government is using its recently reinforced power status (see out latest monthly report) to step up its anti-corruption efforts, and it has become rather aggressive in that regard over the past few days. In part, this probably stems from their wish to save money for the budget, and in part, this must be prompted by the latent public expectation that the government should solve the problem of fiscal stabilisation out of the previously stolen public money which it claws back from the thieves, in accordance with their election promises (or what the supporting crowd preferred to hear from those promises). Earlier this week, the court has decided to take in custody a former state secretary and head of the government's own asset management agency, and one of the wealthiest businessman in Hungary, a leading real estate investor and someone considered as a highly rated member of the broad Fidesz political family, on a current criminal investigation by the Prosecutor General's office of a corruption case. More recently, the government has decided to propose a system in which the national tax authority (NAV) would automatically start an investigation into the personal wealth of all politicians leaving their positions, including the wealth of their family members, potentially ...