Will life improve for Hungary's Roma community under Magyar?

https://p.dw.com/p/5FDeU

It was one of the most emotional moments of the transfer of power in Hungary: On May 9, just as the new National Assembly convened for its inaugural session, a group of children in white shirts entered the plenary hall of the magnificent neo-Gothic parliament building in the Hungarian capital Budapest. They played tamburas and guitars, and sang "Cigany Himnusz," the unofficial anthem of the Roma in Hungary. The opening lines go "zold az erdo, zold a hegy is" or "green is the forest, green is the hill."

It brought tears to the eyes of many of the members of parliament as well as to the tens of thousands who gathered outside parliament. Aladar Horvath, one of Hungary's best-known Roma civil rights activists and one of the country's first Roma members of parliament after the end of the communist dictatorship in 1990, was also there. "I too was moved to tears," he said. "It was as if we were finally coming home."

After Orban, Hungary's Roma hope for change

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Magyar fulfils a promise 

The performance was the fulfilment of a promise that Hungary's new prime minister, Peter Magyar, had made in November 2025 when he met the children, members of a tambura ensemble SUGO Tamburazenekar, in the village of Sukosd in southern Hungary. He vowed he would invite them to play in the Hungarian parliament if his Tisza party won the elections.

And this was not the only symbolic gesture on this historic day. As the new members of parliament left the building, the Roma singer Ibolya Olah took the stage on the steps and sang the patriotic song "Magyarorszag." For years, nationalists did not want her to sing the song, which begins with the lines: "There's a country where I walked in my dream: Hungary." After her performance, Magyar hugged the singer.

Hungary's new prime minister has an extraordinary knack for symbolic politics, and May 9 marked a historic moment for the Roma community not only in Hungary but across Europe. Never before in European history had members of this minority been so demonstratively included in the transition of power. It was particularly poignant given the fact that Viktor Orban's authoritarian regime, which came to an end after 16 years, was so deeply anti-Roma.

The Tisza parliamentary group now includes four Roma lawmakers. One of them, Krisztian Koszegi — a teacher and director of a vocational school — is the first Roma person in Hungarian history to be elected deputy speaker of the Hungarian National Assembly.

'Shame on you': Magyar speaks out against antiziganism

Magyar has repeatedly spoken out strongly against antiziganism. He also condemned the parliamentary faction of the far-right Mi Hazank Mozgalom (Our Homeland Movement) for walking out demonstratively as the Roma children performed. "Shame on you!" he told the lawmakers, saying that it was unacceptable to turn one's back on children because of their origins.

This represents a radical shift in tone for Hungary's Roma community, which numbers some 300,000 officially and 800,000 unofficially. The highest echelons of Orban's regime, including the prime minister himself, repeatedly insulted the community's members.

In 2012, as he announced a new Roma strategy at a Roma conference, Orban said "everyone must work" because "one can't make a living from crime." In January 2026, his transport minister, Janos Lazar, referred to Hungarian Roma as the "domestic reserves" that should be used "to scrub the toilets on our Intercity trains — because Hungarian voters aren't exactly lining up to clean the crap out of overflowing toilets."

In socioeconomic terms, a large majority of Hungary's Roma community have been trapped in a caste-like system of state dependency on the margins of society. Roma adults were pushed into working in "public works programs," which did not lead to better pay and working conditions. Segregation and educational disadvantages became commonplace for Roma children and young people. Roma voters were offered bribes to cast their ballots for Orban's Fidesz party and corrupt Roma politicians lent legitimacy to the regime.

Tisza pledges end to anti-Roma discrimination

Magyar and his Tisza party have pledged to put an end to the discrimination. In their manifesto, they wrote that Orban's system despised Roma and did not believe in them. It said that Tisza was different and announced plans to overhaul the "public works programs," end segregation in education and provide better housing and healthcare for Roma.

Though many liberal politicians have made similar promises over the years, it is very plausible that Magyar is serious.

Many prominent figures in Hungary's Roma community have said they will wait and see whether the change in rhetoric is followed up by action. The well-known sociologist Angela Kocze wrote on the left-wing portal Merce that decades of experience had shown that Roma were needed when it came to legitimizing election campaigns and symbolic moments, but less likely to be called when positions were being filled.

None of the new government's ministers are Roma, which has sparked disappointment. Education expert Szilvia Szenasi said that the principle of "nothing about us without us" should apply.

'I hope Magyar seizes this opportunity'

Politician and activist Horvath also complained that Roma representatives had not been given more say during consultations with the new government. He said that there had been a constructive meeting with the new education minister but they had been waiting for weeks to meet the new government commissioner responsible for coordinating social policy strategy.

Horvath said that it was still too early to pass judgment. "The question remains: cosmetic changes to the system or a systemic overhaul?" he told DW. "A great deal depends on Peter Magyar. If he succeeds in convincing the majority that the Roma are just as Hungarian as all the other Hungarians then he will be counted among the great statesmen. History rarely grants the chance for a systemic change like Hungary currently has. I hope Magyar seizes this opportunity."

This article was translated from German.