Can Elections Break Orbán’s State-Made Oligarchy?

In April 2026, Hungarians go to the polls again. The choice is framed as ‘war and peace’ by Viktor Orbán, and ‘corruption and oligarchy’ by Péter Magyar. But is Hungary’s real problem that its oligarchs are not independent tycoons at all, but extensions of the state itself?

In this Visegrad Insight videocast, Wojciech Przybylski speaks with two insiders of Hungary’s economic and political transformation: former central banker and regional investment banker András Simor and former economy minister and governor of the National Bank of Hungary Péter Ákos Bod.

This podcast is a part of our Europe Future Forum Polish-Hungarian Perspectives project. Through a programme of meetings with experts, political advisers and opinion leaders from both countries, we aim to explore Poland’s and Hungary’s perspectives on the transformations underway in the European Union at the threshold of an age of economic warfare. Supported by the Wacław Felczak Institute for Polish-Hungarian Cooperation.

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00:00 Hungary 2026: elections, war and peace, or corruption and oligarchy
01:44 Guest intro: András Simor’s road through Central European banking
03:09 What is Visegrad Insight and why focus on Hungary now
04:27 What makes Hungary’s oligarchs ‘state-made’ rather than self-made
06:47 Mészáros and Simicska: how friends of power rise and fall
10:58 Sanctions on Russia, MOL and Orbán’s Trump connection
17:30 After Orbán? What a change of government would really face
23:09 Break: why to subscribe to Visegrad Insight
23:34 Guest intro: Péter Ákos Bod on Hungary’s political culture
25:01 Who is Hungary’s chief oligarch today
27:51 Matolcsy, the central bank and the danger of being ‘number two’
31:52 Nationalise, then reprivatise: building a loyal business elite
39:49 Universities, foundations and pre election asset shields
41:42 How much money and power could a new government actually claw back
46:30 Is Péter Magyar offering conservative reform rather than revolution
49:34 Looking ahead to April 2026 and possible scenarios for transition
50:50 Closing: what comes next in Visegrad Insight’s Hungary series