Monday 6 July 2026 – Sunday 12 July 2026 · 2026 week 28

The week in one sentence

The week was dominated by three parallel fronts of the transfer of power — the constitutional amendment, the institutionalisation of accountability and the opening of the EU funding gate — all three posing the same question: will the rule-of-law yardstick remain valid even when it is the new majority that uses the tools?

MIAK’s weekly reflection

This week was about the post-change-of-government restructuring accelerating in three directions at once, all three running into the same critical point. The constitutional amendment is about redrawing the checks and balances, the Asset Recovery Office and the “Purgatory” criminal complaints are about recovering public assets, and the opening of the EU funding gate is about switching the external disciplining mechanism back on. Separately, each may be a legitimate aim — together, however, they draw out a power-concentration risk and a European institutional frame counterbalancing it, in the same week.

For MIAK, the signal of the week is the consistent application of a single yardstick: checks and balances are not the tools of the winner of the day. The same rule-of-law expectation that MIAK applied to the previous government — prior impact assessment, broad consultation, judicial control, the presumption of innocence — is now answerable against the current majority too. An asset-recovery authority of “almost unlimited power”, the removal of a head of state mid-term, or a campaign-like wave of criminal complaints are at their most risky precisely when it is most tempting to abandon the guarantees for the sake of speed. The European funding gate that opened this week and accession to the European Public Prosecutor’s Office are therefore not merely good financial news: they are also an institutional counterweight, which embeds domestic accountability in an external, answerable frame. The message of the week is thus that the turn is worth as much of it as is realised in an independent procedure, documented and with the preservation of the guarantees.

The week’s main threads

1. The constitutional amendment and the removal of the head of state — the test of the rule-of-law frame

This was the week’s most strongly rising thread, in the top ten for five days, with the highest scores. On Monday the expert debate around the submitted amendment to the Fundamental Law and the rule-of-law objections of President Sulyok Tamás were still at the centre; by Tuesday parliament debated the text for nearly ten hours, and the part affecting the powers of the independent regulatory bodies — which had raised Brussels’ concern — was removed from it. In the second half of the week the head of state stated in a formal position that the proposal “in a number of its elements violates the principle of the rule of law, of democracy and of the separation of powers”, Fidesz held its first anti-government street demonstration (“StopArbitrariness”), and by the end of the week Monday’s (13 July) parliamentary vote was set. MIAK’s public-law position is consistent: the President of the Republic is head of state, not a government actor, and it is the National Assembly that decides on the president’s removal and on the constitutional amendment by a two-thirds majority, not the Government. Strengthening checks and balances is a supportable aim, but legitimacy comes from prior constitutional review, the incorporation of the Venice Commission’s recommendations and broad consultation — not from the speed of night-time votes.

Detailed analysis: The amendment to the Fundamental Law and the removal of the head of state — Monday’s vote and the rule-of-law guarantees (MIAK blog, 12 July 2026)

2. The institutionalisation of accountability — Purgatory and the Asset Recovery Office

This thread was practically in the top ten every day, and it produced the week’s strongest policy-area dominance: transparency and anti-corruption policy was present in 29 of the 60 weekly top topics. At the start of the week the winding-up of the MCC Foundation and the leadership change at the NER-linked state economic-development companies (HEPA, HIPA, EXIM), as well as the LATEREX affair (a company still winning public procurements after the change of government), came into focus. By Wednesday the “Purgatory operation” had arrived: the government filed criminal complaints with the investigating authority in five suspected corruption cases (NMHH data-deletion codes, grants to civil-society organisations), and the defence ministry ordered a comprehensive contract review. By the end of the week accountability received an institutional frame: the bill on the National Asset Recovery and Asset Protection Office (NVVH) was submitted, which the press described as a “super-authority of almost unlimited power”. MIAK’s message is unchanged: recovering public assets is a legitimate aim, but it is credible only if the institution’s powers are precisely delimited in law, if every asset seizure can be reviewed by a court, and if the establishment of a criminal offence remains exclusively the competence of the prosecution service and the courts — not of an executive body. Instead of individual criminal complaints, the sustainable response is an institution independent of the government that follows the Klitgaard logic and reduces monopoly and discretion.

Detailed analyses: “Purgatory” — five criminal complaints in suspected corruption cases, rule-of-law accountability · The dismantling of NER assets — MCC, NVVH and the rule-of-law guarantees · NER-asset leadership change — LATEREX, the public-procurement loophole, systemic reform · The Mol windfall tax and the dismantling of the KEKVA system — rule-based taxation

3. The opening of the EU funding gate and EPPO accession

The week’s most far-reaching positive turn arrived from beyond the eastern neighbourhood: on Friday the EU member-state finance ministers unanimously approved Hungary’s revised recovery plan, worth some 10 billion euros (3600 billion forints), and Brussels at the same time confirmed Hungary’s accession to the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO). The thread began at the start of the week with the transformation of the MFB into an EU-funds manager, and then Kármán András, head of the ministry, held out the prospect of a Friday decision — by the end of the week both steps became official. For MIAK this double event confirms two pillars of the programme: the transparent, maximum drawdown of cohesion funds and EU-level corruption control. The pro-government framing’s “in exchange for conditions” reading, however, poses a real question — the content of the commitments and their domestic answerability are at least as important as the money itself. Public-law precision: the EPPO is an independent, EU-level prosecuting authority; accession does not abolish the competence of the Hungarian prosecution service, but grants a parallel, supranational power to investigate offences harming the EU budget. MIAK’s viewpoint is the same throughout: not “how much came in” but “on what and how it is spent” is the real yardstick.

Detailed analyses: The EU funding gate and EPPO accession — transparent fund drawdown · EU funds and the transformation of the MFB — transparent fund management

What we did not publish separately

Under our trigger-based publishing philosophy, MIAK does not write a stand-alone post on every top topic — but it sees them and keeps track of them. This week the following remained without a separate analysis, typically because of the earlier saturation of the topic or the daily quota limit:

  • The solidarity tax and the capital’s liquidity (MIAK policy area: Territorial inequality and rural policy) — a ruling is expected in the autumn in the lawsuits concerning 175 billion forints plus interest, while the capital’s current account is deep in the red; the systemic question of municipal financing deserves a stand-alone treatment.
  • The Brussels infringement procedure against the margin cap (MIAK policy area: Economy) — the European Commission has taken Hungary to the EU Court over the margin stop: the classic tension between price stabilisation and market competition, with the phase-out question of an inherited measure.
  • The official closure of the gold-convoy case (MIAK policy area: Justice) — the NAV investigating authority suspended the investigation for lack of a criminal offence, publicly contradicting a secret-service criminal complaint; a positive precedent of institutional independence, but the integrity of the process is the question.
  • The Szakács István case and policing proportionality (MIAK policy area: Public safety and policing) — the taking into custody of an influencer over political speech: the side-independent, rule-of-law yardstick of the boundary between freedom of opinion and real threat.
  • Eurostat: population decline (MIAK policy area: Demography) — according to fresh data, Hungary is among the fastest-shrinking EU member states; the demographic contraction strains the pension system, the labour market and the care systems at once.
  • The reform of the agricultural chamber’s election rules (MIAK policy area: Agriculture) — the reform of the public-body system is a boundary question of professional self-government and political influence, linked with drought damage.

Policy-area focus — what the press touched on most

The policy-area breakdown of the week’s 60 top-ten topics (by occurrences):

Policy area Weekly top-10 occurrences
Transparency and anti-corruption policy 29
Economy 26
Justice 16
Foreign policy 13
Public administration and e-government 12
Environment and climate 10
Culture 10

This is a weekly summary. The in-depth analyses of individual topics can be found in the daily posts.

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