After the fall of the Orbán regime, can Hungary mend its damaged democracy?

0:00It's Consider This, where every day we go deep on one big news story. Today, democracy returns to Hungary. Back in April, I reported from Budapest to chronicle one of the country's most historic elections. Viktor Orban, the longtime strongman leader who ruled Hungary with an iron fist for 16 years, was unseated in a landslide. The city erupted in celebration. Hungarians filled the streets, they sang, they danced, and we were left Austriken. 18-year-old Sara Csangarady voted for the very first time. She couldn't contain her excitement. I'm really hopeful for the next one. And I really hope that it will be a better country for us.

0:42And I hope there will be no corruption. And I hope the media will be also better. And yeah, that's all. I'm just really happy. Consider this. What's happened to Hungary since then? And how has the government of the newly elected Prime Minister Peter Magyar tried to reconstruct its democracy?

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1:54Shop plans at mintmobile.com slash switch. Taxes and fees extra. See Mint Mobile for details. If you've ever found yourself doomscrolling and thinking, wait, who decided this was a story? You're not alone. I'm Brooke Gladstone, co-host of WNYC's On the Media. Each week, we ask those kinds of questions and more. Because once you see how the system operates, you'll never consume media the same way again. Listen to On the Media, wherever you get your podcasts.

2:29It's Consider This from NPR. A couple of months ago, I went back to Budapest to see what has changed since that historic election in April. Incredible. I started my journey in Mari Aramete, one of the wealthiest neighborhoods overlooking Buda, the hilly city district filled with castles and churches perched above the Danube. And this is where I run into blogger Geza Bap. He's wearing shorts and a backpack, and he's hiked a mile from the nearest bus stop. I just wanted to come here and see the project myself with my own eyes. Bap hiked all this way to see an abandoned construction site. Above us looms a 10-story crane that rotates with the wind.

3:09All around us is discarded equipment surrounding a half-built semi-circular modernist mansion made of concrete and steel. The size is really outstanding even in this district. This half-built mansion belongs to Jula Balos, one of the most infamous oligarchs of the former Orban regime. The 46-year-old is one of the wealthiest people in Hungary, with a reported net worth exceeding$300 million. He and his family divide their time between Budapest and Miami. He's also known to have a penchant for extravagant supercars, including a Ferrari Testarossa and a Lamborghini Diablo. He became rich by turning his advertising company into a propaganda machine for Orban and his Fidesz party.

3:54They scattered the country with billboards inciting hatred against any perceived threat to Orban. People like George Soros, Volodymyr Zelensky, migrants, and the entire European Union, of which Hungary is a member. In return, Balos received public contracts worth nearly three and a half billion dollars, according to the Hungarian watchdog group, the Corruption Research Center.

4:20Balos's high-flying life came to a screeching halt when his friend Viktor Orban conceded the election on the night of April 12th.

4:31Within weeks, Peter Magyar's new government froze Balos's bank account as part of a corruption investigation into his companies. Days later, a solemn, nervous Balos appeared on a television news program to defend himself. The interviewer asked him if he had considered fleeing the country.

4:51Through tears, Balos said, I was born in this country. I grew up here. My family is here, and I have no reason to leave. I was born here in this country.

5:03Balas's half-built mansion has become a pilgrimage site for people like Géza Bap, who wants to understand the depth of corruption during Viktor Orbán's 16-year rule over the country. He was one of the heads of all this propaganda that was going on for such a long time in Hungary, and he could make such a fortune out of this. Yeah. That's striking. It is striking. BAP isn't the only Hungarian in a bit of a daze from the excesses of Viktor Orban's government. For many here, it feels like waking up to a world filled with possibilities for the new government. In theory, they could even replace the constitution.

5:41Stefania Kapronce is former director of the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union. We sit down at a park bench in central Budapest, and she lays out Prime Minister Peter Magyar's priorities to reconstruct Hungary's democracy. It begins with money. What they want to do is fix some of the key aspects that hold back European Union funding. The European Union has frozen$20 billion worth of funding to Hungary to punish Viktor Orban's government for violating the EU's democratic principles. This is equal to more than 8 % of Hungary's GDP. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has vowed nearly all of these funds would be paid back if Magyar's government agreed on more than two dozen reforms by the end of this month.

6:28And then what they are proposing is a longer constitution-making process, a reconstitution, which will involve people, citizens, also civil society. A reconstitution? That's my wording. In his first year as prime minister, Viktor Orban and his Fidesz party amended Hungary's constitution several times before overhauling the entire document. calling it the fundamental law. So does that mean then that they're going to scrap the constitution that Orban basically rewrote? Yes, so the fundamental law that we now have as a constitution, it's really a one-party product. And it was amended already 15 times, serving the political interest of Fidesz.

7:15Orban's redrafted constitution tweaked the justice system in the country's electoral process in order to keep Fidesz and Orban in power. which made Magyar's victory in April an even bigger surprise. I ask Apronce the question on many Hungarian minds since the election. Do you think Arbant should go to prison?

7:36Yes, I think it's clear. I think it's clear. He had a mandate for representing the whole country, and they not only stole a lot of money, but they also created so much hatred, so many people. So many of my friends, so many of my colleagues suffered real-life consequences because of the hate campaigns that they created. There's no doubt in my mind that he deserves that. One person who suffered real-life consequences from Orbán's government is Lukasz Szába, managing director of the newspaper Magyar Hong, Hungarian voice. He gives me a tour of his magazine's newsroom. I mean, this is more or less an apartment, right?

8:15This is like an apartment. That was an old apartment. It's 120 square meters. but it's enough for us. So we have to be modest because we don't have investors. We don't have money. We have to fit in small places, but it's cozy, let's say. It's cozy. When I last met Szabó more than a year ago, he was forced to print his weekly conservative news magazine in neighboring Slovakia because printers in Hungary were too scared of being shut down by Orbán's government for printing it. Back then, Szabó told me that being a journalist in Hungary had felt increasingly risky. We are not yet in Turkey because the journalists will be not jailed yet.

8:52We are not in Russia because nobody was falling out from the windows yet. But day by day, we are getting closer. Shaba could not get a single company to place advertisements in his paper. They were all too scared of the Orban government to do that. Now? Now we can smell the wind of change. In the last edition, we had eight different advertising, which doesn't happen in our eight years of existence. And our journalists started to complain that they have no space to write articles because of advertising. Shabba says he's looking forward to getting back to normal. A normal way of communication with the government.

9:32So let our journalists in. Please give answers to our questions. and if we want an interview with somebody, please help us with an interview. That's the most important thing for us as a journalist. So pretty basic demands, actually. Yeah. The government under Prime Minister Majar is also working on a return to normalcy. The new parliament elected a new president, replacing an Orban appointee. Orban's prosecutor general resigned, and the Majar administration is moving forward with plans to limit prime ministers to just two terms in office. Orban served five terms. But mostly, as one Hungarian friend told me on the night of the election, the hope is to restore Hungary to what he called a boring country.

10:17This episode was produced and edited by Michael Leavitt, and our interim executive producer is Courtney Dorning.

10:27It's Consider This from NPR. I'm Rob Schmitz. This message comes from NetSuite. They say that every day your business is late to AI. You fall two days behind. Fortunately, there's NetSuite Next. NetSuite Next is where your business meets AI because AI is built into everything you do. It automatically surfaces custom insights throughout your day. AI agents work alongside you to solve problems. It's just like you're having a conversation with a colleague. If your revenues are at least in the seven figures, try NetSuite Next for free. Go to netsuite.ai slash story. If you've ever found yourself doom scrolling and thinking, wait, who decided this was a story?

11:09You're not alone. I'm Brooke Gladstone, co-host of WNYC's On the Media. Each week we ask those kinds of questions and more. Because once you see how the system operates, you'll never consume media the same way again. Listen to On the Media wherever you get your podcasts.