Hungary’s new PM symbolically removes fences erected around Orbán’s former offices

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Hungary’s new Prime Minister Péter Magyar on Friday personally removed fencing around a historic building in the capital Budapest that served as the office of his autocratic predecessor Viktor Orbán.

Magyar announced that the famous Karmelita, located at Budapest’s landmark Castle Hill, overlooking the Danube river, will be open for public until authorities decide on its future role.

The former Catholic monastery become a symbol of Orbán’s rule after he had it cordoned off in 2021.

“There is no place for cordons in Hungary after the change of regime,” Magyar told reporters as he symbolically pushed open the fences. He said the institutions had been built “from the money of the Hungarian taxpayers and made so beautiful with those funds.”

Magyar and his center-right Tisza party swept Orbán from power in an election in April, winning a two-thirds majority that gave him a clear mandate for major changes after his predecessor’s 16 years in power.

Magyar has vowed to restore democratic institutions and governmental checks and balances that were heavily eroded during Orbán’s rule, and to clamp down on alleged corruption.

He has revealed the luxury renovations that former government members carried out on their offices. Magyar himself has said he would move his seat to the administrative part of the city on the other bank of the Danube.

The Karmelita building, he said, will now be accessible for an “extensive period.” Already, a website has been set up where visitors can book a tour. Magyar said some buildings in the castle zone have been renovated while other are under construction.

The situation “is likely to generate a number of new ideas,” he added without elaborating.

The prime minister has promised to repair his country’s ties with its European Union partners and restore Hungary’s place among Western democracies.

Magyar plans to form a National Asset Recovery and Protection Office, an authority tasked with investigating and seeking to recover public funds misused during Orbán’s tenure.