Hungary’s governing Tisza party will approve President András Baka’s nominee for chief prosecutor, Prime Minister Péter Magyar said on Monday, in a significant step in his effort to reshape the country’s public institutions after his April election victory.
Magyar said in a Facebook post that his party’s parliamentary group would back Péter Fejes for the post. Fejes, 66, retired last year after a career spent entirely in the prosecution service, and specialises in criminal law, European Union law and sports law.
The chief prosecutor is elected to a nine-year term and requires the support of a two-thirds majority in parliament, a threshold Magyar’s party can meet on its own. Tisza had rejected Baka’s first nominee for the post, so Monday’s backing removes an obstacle that had left the appointment unresolved.
Appointing a new chief prosecutor is central to Magyar’s anti-corruption drive, which he has dubbed Operation Purgatory. Since taking power in May, his centre-right Tisza party has removed several figures promoted by former Prime Minister Viktor Orbán to key public positions, including the chief prosecutor, the head of the constitutional court, the head of the media authority, and Hungary’s president.
The previous chief prosecutor, Gábor Bálint Nagy, submitted his resignation in July. Under Magyar, Hungary has also joined the European Public Prosecutor’s Office and set up a National Asset Protection and Recovery Office to investigate alleged corruption during Orbán’s 16-year rule, allegations the former prime minister has denied.
Magyar has said corruption, including misuse of public funds, has cost Hungarians 8% to 10% of gross domestic product in recent years. Two former ministers from Orbán’s government and former central bank chief György Matolcsy are currently under arrest over graft accusations, according to the report.
Magyar’s announcement signals the likely outcome rather than completing it: the chief prosecutor must still be formally elected by parliament. But with Tisza able to command the required majority on its own, Fejes’s path to the nine-year post now looks clear, and his appointment would give Magyar’s government control of one of the most powerful offices in Hungary’s justice system at a moment when its corruption investigations are widening.
Note: the featured image is a file photo of Péter Magyar in Battonya in August 2025, not a photograph of Monday’s announcement.
Sources: Reuters, “Hungary’s governing party backs nominee for chief prosecutor”, 2 November 2026, https://www.reuters.com/world/hungarys-governing-party-backs-nominee-chief-prosecutor-2026-11-02/
