Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Monday urged Hungary’s incoming government to take immediate steps to restore fundamental rights and dismantle laws and institutions used to suppress dissent, following opposition leader Péter Magyar’s landslide victory in Sunday’s elections that is set to end 16 years of rule under Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. 

The organization called for the immediate suspension and repeal of the Sovereignty Protection Office, a body established in 2023 with broad powers to investigate journalists, civil society organizations, and academics receiving foreign funding. It also pressed for an end to emergency decree powers that have allowed the executive to bypass parliamentary debate since 2020.

Lydia Gall, senior Europe and Central Asia researcher at HRW, said the new government “has a major opportunity to begin addressing Hungary’s rights crisis by restoring the rule of law and reinvigorating democratic institutions,” adding that “early action to end rule by decree would send an immediate signal that Hungary is turning the page on years of erosion of rights.”

HRW urged the government to drop criminal charges against Budapest Mayor Gergely Karácsony, prosecuted for helping organize the Budapest Pride gathering after police banned the event, and against Géza Buzás-Hábel, organizer of the 2025 Pride march in Pécs. Parliament voted in March 2025 to ban Pride marches and other LGBT-related assemblies. The organization also called for dropping an investigation into journalist Szabolcs Panyi, which it described as apparent retaliation for his reporting on public interest matters.

The Orbán government concentrated power in the executive branch over its 16-year tenure, weakened judicial independence, and brought approximately 80 percent of the country’s media under direct or indirect government control. The Court of Justice of the EU has imposed a daily fine of €1 million on Hungary since June 2024 for failing to comply with its asylum policy rulings.

Magyar’s Tisza party won a two-thirds supermajority, giving the incoming government the parliamentary majority needed to amend the constitution. HRW said those reforms should include meeting EU rule of law milestones, which would unlock billions of euros in EU funds frozen due to the previous government’s repeated breaches of EU law.