Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar personally pushed open the metal fencing around the Karmelita building on Friday, the Associated Press reported, physically dismantling a symbol of the autocratic rule of his predecessor Viktor Orbán. The act came six weeks after Magyar’s Tisza party swept Orbán from power in a landslide, winning a two-thirds majority that gave him a clear mandate to reverse the concentration of power that defined Orbán’s 16 years in office.
The Karmelita, a historic former Catholic monastery perched on Castle Hill overlooking the Danube River, became a landmark of Orbán’s insular governance after he had it cordoned off in 2021. The building served as his official office, its sealed-off status a visual emblem of the distance between the state and the public under his administration.
“There is no place for cordons in Hungary after the change of regime,” Magyar told reporters as he symbolically pushed the gates aside, the AP reported. He added that the institutions had been built “from the money of the Hungarian taxpayers and made so beautiful with those funds.” Magyar announced that the building would now be open to the public for an “extensive period” while authorities decide on its future role, and that a website had already been established for visitors to book tours.
The new prime minister’s actions are part of a broader agenda to restore democratic institutions and governmental checks and balances that were heavily eroded during Orbán’s tenure. Magyar has vowed to clamp down on alleged corruption, revealing luxury renovations that former government members carried out on their offices. He himself said he would move his seat to the administrative part of the city on the other bank of the Danube, distancing his own office from the Karmelita.
Magyar also pledged to repair Hungary’s relations with its European Union partners and restore the country’s place among Western democracies. He 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 time in office.