Péter Magyar’s landslide election victory in Hungary is raising questions about the future of the country’s EU commissioner, Olivér Várhelyi.
The two-term commissioner owes his political career to Viktor Orbán, the strong man he was deleted of seismic power in Hungary the elections on sunday. A member of the college of commissioners since 2019, Várhelyi has spent most of his second term working hard on topics such as animal welfare and various healthcare files.
As they celebrated their massive victory at the Novotel hotel in Budapest on Sunday night, Tisza party officials were openly speculating about Várhelyi’s future and whether Magyar, the country’s prime minister-in-waiting, would try to force him out of office.
EU rules, however, can still get in the way.
National governments cannot recall their country’s commissioner; only the president of the European Commission can force a resignation.
“It is not standard practice to change commissioners when governments change,” Richard Corbett, former lawmaker and author of “The European Union: How Does It Work?” said Euractiv. “The commission operates with a degree of independence, the commissioners are not there to represent national governments.”
For example, Janusz Wojciechowski, the Polish government’s choice for Law and Justice for the Commission in 2019, remained in office even when Donald Tusk’s Civic Platform returned to power in 2023. A similar dynamic occurred when Giorgia Meloni took office in 2022: Italy’s commissioner, Paolo Gentiloni, a stable seat for years.
Clean slate
Magyar has made replacing senior Fidesz-linked officials a key tenet of his campaign and has vowed to rid Hungary of all the “puppets” who helped Orban maintain a firm grip on the country’s key institutions.
Whether he considers Várhelyi to be in that category remains to be seen.
Várhelyi is now under scrutiny in an internal investigation into allegations that Hungary deployed intelligence officers to Brussels to gather information on EU institutions and get close to EU officials during his time as ambassador.
Belly of the Castle said he had no knowledge of any such operation. Magyar before accused that of “not revealing the whole truth”.
Magyar, who served in Hungary’s mission to the EU under Várhelyi, says the presence of intelligence operatives was an open secret. “At the Hungarian embassy in Brussels, it was known that during the tenure of János Lázár, intelligence officers were posted there,” he said.
The announcement of an internal Commission investigation has been followed by months of silence. The EU executive was contacted for a response but did not respond by the time of publication.
EU’s Várhelyi denies role in Hungary’s espionage claims, Commission says
EU Commissioner Olivér Várhelyi was “unaware” of alleged Hungarian-led spying operations against…
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Exit routes
The President of the Commission gained the power to dismiss a single commissioner in the Treaty of Nice. Neither the Council nor the Parliament can dismiss an individual commissioner.
The European Parliament can only act collectively, through a vote of no confidence in the entire Commission.
“A new government would seem a weak reason” for von der Leyen to force him out, said Eric Maurice, an expert on EU institutions at the Center for European Policy think tank. But he said that could change if “they find out that he was involved in the espionage case.”
Várhelyi was re-elected for another term as commissioner in 2024, with the help of the European People’s Party, the parliamentary grouping to which Tisza Magyar MEPs belong. But he has shown other political stripes, attending a meeting of Orbán’s cabinet and earlier this year attending a political meeting of the leaders of the far-right Patriots for Europe in Brussels.
“While Várhelyi has not always demonstrated complete independence in the past, he should remain in office as long as von der Leyen is convinced that he is acting in the interests of Europe and not in the interests of the Hungarian opposition,” said Moritz Körner, a liberal German MEP.
László Andor, Hungary’s Socialist commissioner when Orbán returned to power in 2010, said Várhelyi’s replacement would not be very Hungarian. Andor remained in office to complete his term in 2014.
“Hungarians respect the completion of cycles. Since 1990, all parliamentary elections have been held in the spring every four years – no deviations, nothing extraordinary,” he said Euractiv’s main newsletter Rapporteur.
Várhelyi declined to comment.
(aw, jp)
