Monday 21 September 2026 – Sunday 27 September 2026 · 2026, week 39

The week in one sentence

This week the leadership of the prosecution service and the immunity cases turned into an open constitutional stalemate, while the government simultaneously announced tax increases, a wealth tax and price compensation — the direction of the decisions has taken shape, but their rules and their bill have not.

MIAK’s weekly reflection

This was the week of stalemates. In the election of the Prosecutor General, the head of state and the parliamentary majority are waiting for each other; in the immunity cases, the prosecution service and the head of government are arguing in public. And in the fuel-price shock, the government, the hauliers and the petrol station operators are negotiating without any of them knowing how long the Middle East shipping disruption will last. Most of the week’s noise was political sparring. The signal of the week, however, is that of the 60 top topics, 44 had a concrete, date-linked decision, court order or official data release behind them — the pace of governing has not slowed, only the debates have grown louder.

MIAK’s yardstick here, too, is independent of political side. The question of the leadership of the prosecution service is not about who wins the dispute over the nomination, but about whether there is a rule for the case when the mandate expires and there is no successor. The same is true of the immunity cases: lifting immunity is not a verdict, and refusing to lift it is not an acquittal either. In both cases it is the quality of the procedure — case-by-case reasoning, public committee minutes — that gives the decision its credibility. On the economic side, the recurring gap of the week is the impact assessment. Announcements were made on the top bracket of the wealth tax, on the relaunch of the itemised tax for small taxpaying businesses (KATA) and on the tobacco tax alike, but not a single public calculation of their combined impact has appeared.

The third lesson of the week is that institutional accountability and everyday burdens compete for attention in the same press cycle. Approved and rejected nominations, suspicions and house searches dominated the front pages. Meanwhile the Hungarian Central Statistical Office (KSH) measured the number of births at a historic low, and according to the Magyar Nemzeti Bank (MNB), the drought hit Hungary the hardest in Europe. These are slower but more lasting processes, and in MIAK’s view they deserve at least as much attention as the week’s political debates.

The main threads of the week

1. The Prosecutor General stalemate and the immunity cases: constitutional tension day by day

The thread was in the top ten on all six days, three times in first place. On Monday the Sándor Palace announced that President of the Republic András Baka proposes Zoltán Szathmáry as Prosecutor General; the Prime Minister indicated the same day that they see no chance of his election. On Tuesday the National Assembly lifted the immunity of three Fidesz MPs, and the same day the Office of the Prosecutor General moved to lift the immunity of Prime Minister Péter Magyar and of former ministers Balázs Hankó and Miklós Seszták. By Wednesday the Tisza parliamentary group had unanimously rejected the candidate, and the head of state announced that he would not put forward a new one — so the Office of the Prosecutor General may be left without a head by December. On Thursday the Prime Minister initiated narrowing parliamentary immunity in the case of publicly prosecuted criminal offences, and an extraordinary sitting was called for Monday, 28 September, on the election of the Prosecutor General and on four immunity cases. By the end of the week the question of parliamentary integrity also came up: it emerged that, when the members of the Media Council were elected, one MP had voted in place of a party colleague. A motion to lift immunity is neither an indictment nor a verdict; only a court can decide on guilt.

Detailed analysis: Immunity requests: separate reasoning for each case, a committee hearing documented in minutes (MIAK blog, 23 September 2026) · A risk rating is not a verdict: a public methodology, the presumption of innocence and an orderly sequence of procedures (MIAK blog, 26 September 2026)

2. The burdens of the 2027 budget: tax increases, a wealth tax and a new central bank framework

The economic thread was also present every day, from a different angle each time. On Monday it emerged that next year’s budget has an adjustment need of roughly 2,500 billion forints; the government withdrew a 12-billion dormitory investment, and the tobacco tax rises from November. On Tuesday the central bank left the base rate unchanged, but for the first time since 2001 lowered the inflation target, from 3 to 2.5 per cent. On Wednesday the details became public of the investigation into politicians’ asset growth, which may affect up to five thousand people, and of the public blacklist planned by the National Tax and Customs Administration (NAV). On Friday, according to the MNB’s inflation report, the drought may reduce the value added of agriculture by as much as 15 per cent, and this year’s growth expectation for gross domestic product (GDP) was lowered to 1.8 per cent. On the same day the yield on long-term government securities jumped by 19 basis points (0.19 percentage points) in a single day. On Sunday the Prime Minister announced that the wealth tax is coming from 1 January 2027, with a stricter top bracket than previously planned, and that KATA will be relaunched. The government will only put the draft containing the exact brackets out to public consultation in the coming weeks.

Detailed analyses: The 2027 budget: many small steps, one shared question — who bears the burden? (MIAK blog, 24 September 2026) · Drought and a yield jump in the same week: drought relief needs a rule, the interest bill needs credibility (MIAK blog, 25 September 2026) · A tougher wealth tax, a wider KATA: the numbers must be on the table before the brackets (MIAK blog, 27 September 2026)

3. The fuel-price shock: six days, six new developments, one unresolved cause

The energy-price thread was in the top ten every day of the week, and each day a new actor joined it. On Monday the price buffer on diesel melted to 17–18 forints per litre. On Tuesday nine professional associations called for the immediate phase-out of the margin cap — the state limit on retail margins for basic foodstuffs and drugstore products — and the Slovak prime minister initiated an extraordinary EU summit. From Wednesday the independent petrol station operators protested on Kossuth Square for four days, and the hauliers negotiated with three ministers. On Thursday the energy efficiency obligation scheme was restructured, and the European Commission granted a one-year reprieve from the gas capacity rule at the Serbian border. On Friday the government topped up the Household Utility Cost Protection Fund with 119 billion forints, and the first instalment of the diesel support arrives on 30 September. On Saturday, however, the US president rejected Iran’s offer to open the Strait of Hormuz — that is, the cause of the shock, the Middle East shipping disruption, still persisted at the end of the week.

Detailed analyses: Margin cap: a published phase-out calendar, targeted energy support, time-limited help for hauliers (MIAK blog, 23 September 2026) · 30 September, a triple deadline: the Serbian gas contract, the NIS exemption and the Mol deal — a scenario plan is needed (MIAK blog, 27 September 2026)

What we did not publish separately

MIAK does not write a separate post on every top topic, but it sees them and keeps track of them. This week the following were left without a separate analysis, typically because of the daily quota limit or the recent coverage of the topic:

  • Hungarian–Ukrainian relations (MIAK policy area: Foreign policy) — Hungary did not, after all, join the Kyiv declaration of the Carpathian Eight, the Prime Minister and the Ukrainian foreign minister argued in public, and at the end of the week the Ministry of Foreign Affairs spoke of “misunderstandings that have been cleared up”. The topic was in the top ten on four days, but the yardstick for the bilateral relationship has not yet been stated.
  • The central bank foundations case (MIAK policy area: Transparency and anti-corruption policy) — former central bank governor György Matolcsy was questioned as a suspect for abuse of office, there were house searches in the MNB foundations case, and meanwhile his family once again became an owner of a major bank. A suspicion is not a verdict; the pace of asset recovery depends on the court proceedings.
  • The municipal solidarity contribution (MIAK policy area: Territorial inequality and rural policy) — the Constitutional Court annulled certain rules of the contribution, the National Assembly must adopt a new rule by the end of the year, and Budaörs will not pay from October. There is no stated rule for the transitional period.
  • Changes of education leaders and teacher in-service training (MIAK policy area: Education) — the government is abolishing the compulsory content-based in-service training courses, 407 applications arrived for 60 school district director posts, and the new National Core Curriculum is being prepared. The topic was in the top ten on five days, making it one of the most persistent threads of the week.
  • The two directions of compulsory chamber membership (MIAK policy area: Healthcare) — Parliament restored compulsory membership of the medical chamber, yet in the same week the audit of the agricultural chamber uncovered 14 billion forints of politically motivated spending. The principle of membership in public bodies is thus being strengthened and called into question at the same time.
  • Environmental health alerts (MIAK policy area: Environment and climate) — in Kőszeg, a multiple of the asbestos limit value was measured in the air, lead at 37 times the limit value was found in a stream in Dorog, and mass food poisoning occurred at several Budapest school canteens. What the three cases have in common is that environmental health monitoring raised the alarm only after the fact, once the damage was done.
  • The dissolution of public-interest asset management foundations (MIAK policy area: Education) — according to the Budapest-Capital Regional Court, 14 foundations were dissolved without a legal successor, the stakes in some 40 companies return to state ownership, and the settlement of accounts runs until 31 October.

Policy area focus — what the press covered most

The policy area distribution of the week’s 60 top topics (by occurrence):

Policy area Weekly top-10 occurrences
Economy 30
Transparency and anti-corruption policy 25
Public administration and e-government 18
Justice 14
Foreign policy 13
Social policy 11
Environment and climate 10

This week the press monitor was completed on six days; no separate monitor was prepared on Monday 21 September, and that day’s announcements were processed by Tuesday’s monitor.

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

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