Peter Magyar announces the first seven ministers of the post-Orban government and focuses on reforms and release of EU funds

The winner of the Hungarian elections Peter Magyar, who defeated Viktor Orban at the ballot box and will officially become prime minister of Budapest next month, announced the first names of the ministers in his government at a press conference.

Magyaris ready to confirm Anita Orbán (no relation to the former premier) at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. To the Economy ministry, which will be merged with the Energy ministry and become a central super-ministry for the new Hungarian government, will be called the former senior manager of the multinational Shell, Istvan Kapitany, perhaps the most important name among the managers who have joined Tisza, the party founded from scratch two years ago by Magyar. To the Ministry of Finance will instead go András Kármán, an economist with long experience in public administration and financial institutions, considered a technical profile and attentive to public debt management.

Romulusz Rusin-Szendi, a general and former Chief of Staff, has been nominated for Defence, and is considered a strong name for the strengthening of the Hungarian armed forces and relations with NATO. Zsolt Hegedus, a Hungarian-British doctor with long experience in the public health system of the United Kingdom, will instead be Minister of Health, while the green transition expert Laszlo Gajdos will be Minister of the Environment. Finally Szabolcs Bona, an expression of the Magyar agricultural world, will be the Minister of Agriculture. Negotiations to finalise the appointments - there will be 16 ministers in total - will continue in the coming days. Tisza's new 141-strong parliamentary group will also establish the most important positions in the Budapest Parliament: Andrea Bujdoso has already been nominated to lead the group, while Agnes Forsthoffer is a candidate for the presidency of the national assembly.

Magyar again reiterated his call for the resignation of the top officials previously appointed by Orban: if they do not do so by 31 May, the prime minister-in pectore said, they will still be removed by the new parliamentary majority, which, on the strength of two-thirds of the seats, can also proceed with constitutional reforms without having to agree with the opposition. Among the highest institutional figures invited to leave are the president of the Republic and the heads of the judiciary.

The first act of Magyar's new government, as soon as it takes office, will be to reach an agreement with Brussels to unlock the approximately EUR 18 billion in EU funds currently frozen due to the rule of law controversies linked to the old Orban era. The Tisza leader - who was himself a Member of the European Parliament in Strasbourg for two years and therefore knows the EU dynamics well - said he was optimistic that a political agreement with the EU leadership could already be signed between 15 and 20 May. In exchange for the release of funds, Budapest will sign a detailed roadmap with the reforms Hungary intends to implement until the end of August to restore the rule of law in the country.