Under Viktor Orbán, the Roma community was kept at the very bottom of the social ladder. His successor is taking a stand against antiziganism. But can Hungarian Roma expect fundamental changes?
It was one of the most emotionally charged moments of the power transition in Hungary: On May 9, as the newly formed National Assembly gathered for its first session, a group of children dressed in white shirts entered the plenary hall of the magnificent neo-Gothic parliament building in the Hungarian capital, Budapest. They played tambouras and guitars and sang "Cigány Himnusz," the unofficial anthem of Hungary’s Roma. The opening lines go "zöld az erdő, zöld a hegy is," or "green is the forest, green is the hill."
It brought tears to the eyes of many members of parliament as well as tens of thousands of people gathered outside the parliament. Aladár Horváth, one of Hungary’s best-known Roma civil rights activists and one of the country’s first Roma MPs after the end of the communist dictatorship in 1990, was also present. "I, too, was moved to tears," he said. "It was as if we were finally coming home."
Magyar fulfills a promise
The performance was the fulfillment of a promise made by Hungary’s new prime minister, Péter Magyar, in November 2025 when he met the children, members of the tamboura ensemble SUGO Tamburazenekar, in the village of Sükösd in southern Hungary. He pledged he would invite them to perform in the Hungarian parliament if his Tisza party won the elections.
And this was not the only symbolic gesture on that historic day. As the new MPs left the building, Roma singer Ibolya Oláh took the stage on the steps and sang the patriotic song "Magyarország." For years, nationalists had opposed her singing the song, which begins with the lines: "There’s a country where I walked in my dream: Hungary." After her performance, Magyar embraced the singer.
Hungary’s new prime minister has an extraordinary talent 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 a transfer of power. It was particularly poignant given that Viktor Orbán’s authoritarian regime, which ended after 16 years, was deeply anti-Roma.
The Tisza parliamentary group now includes four Roma lawmakers. One of them, Krisztián Köszegi — 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 Hazánk Mozgalom (Our Homeland Movement) for demonstratively walking out as the Roma children performed. "Shame on you!" he told the lawmakers, stating 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 Orbán’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, Orbán said "everyone must work" because "one can’t make a living from crime." In January 2026, his transport minister, János Lázár, 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 fringes 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 Orbán’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 end the discrimination. In their manifesto, they wrote that Orbán’s system despised Roma and did not believe in them. It stated 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 Angéla Kóczé wrote on the left-wing portal Mérc 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 Horváth 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.
Horváth said 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 Péter 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.