A nine-year appointment
Voting is scheduled for about 11 a.m. local time on President Andras Baka's nominee. Fejes would need a two-thirds parliamentary majority to win the nine-year term, according to Reuters. Magyar's Tisza party holds more than two-thirds of the seats and can elect him without opposition support.
Magyar calls his anti-corruption campaign "Operation Purgatory," Reuters reported on November 2. Since taking office in May 2026, his center-right Tisza party has removed Orban-backed figures from several senior posts, including chief prosecutor, president, and the leadership of the constitutional court and media authority.
The previous top prosecutor, Gabor Balint Nagy, announced in July that he would resign after pressure from Magyar, who had campaigned on a promise of "regime change." Baka said when nominating Fejes that the chief prosecutor's position had been empty for a month and a half, while the deputy prosecutor-general's post for criminal matters had been vacant for more than a year, The Budapest Times reported on October 13.
Lawmakers rejected Baka's first choice last month following reports linking that nominee's brother to the "golden convoy" case, a disputed operation against a Ukrainian state-owned bank's transport vehicles. During the same four-day parliamentary session as the prosecutor vote, lawmakers are also electing members of the Independent Public Media Board, according to Forbes.hu.
Fejes promises political independence
Fejes, 65, is a former regional chief prosecutor whose career in the prosecution service ended in retirement in 2025. Reuters and The Budapest Times describe him as a lawyer and university lecturer specializing in criminal law, European Union law and sports law. He also belongs to the Hungarian Academy of Sciences public body.
His earlier tenure as a chief prosecutor ended in 2012, when then-Prosecutor General Péter Polt removed him, citing a loss of confidence. His service as a prosecutor ended in November 2025 under age restrictions introduced in 2012, The Budapest Times reported.
Among his cases was the prosecution over the 2010 red sludge disaster, which killed eight people. According to Forbes.hu, Fejes filed the indictment and represented the prosecution; after executives of MAL Zrt. were convicted at a retrial, he successfully sought tougher sentences on appeal.
Fejes says he wants to rebuild trust in the prosecution service. During Orban's 16 years in power, confidence declined amid criticism that the centralized institution protected people close to him from legal scrutiny.
"The emphasis must be placed on professionalism, timeliness and being free from politics," Fejes told the conservative website Valasz Online last week.
The disputed bank convoy operation
The "golden convoy" affair presents an unresolved question about the prosecution service's own conduct. Shortly before the April election that Orban lost to Magyar, Hungarian security forces intercepted vehicles carrying assets for a Ukrainian state-owned bank through Hungary. Seven bank employees were detained, and authorities seized millions of dollars, euros and gold bars.
Hungary's tax authority described the operation as part of a money-laundering investigation. The employees were soon freed, the seized assets were returned, and that investigation was ultimately closed. Authorities opened a separate inquiry into possible rights violations during the operation.
Pal Furcht, who led the rights-violation inquiry, stepped down in June. He subsequently accused his superiors of obstructing the investigation and said evidence indicated that Orban had ordered the operation.
Lorant Horvath, the lawyer representing both Furcht and the detained bank employees, said he hoped Fejes would examine the case. "Our biggest concern is that the prosecutor-general's office played an active role" in the operation, he told AFP.
Former ministers in custody
Investigations into alleged high-level corruption have accelerated since Orban's departure. Three former ministers are in custody, including former central bank governor and economy minister Gyorgy Matolcsy, whom Orban once described as his "right-hand" man.
Matolcsy was arrested last month over "economic fraud causing particularly significant financial loss". His son Adam is suspected of being an accomplice and is the subject of an international arrest warrant.
The other two former ministers have been held since September in corruption investigations concerning suspected losses of millions of euros in public money. Orban has called those two investigations "politically motivated" efforts to jail him and destroy his party.
Magyar's government has also brought Hungary into the European Public Prosecutor's Office and established the National Asset Protection and Recovery Office to investigate alleged corruption from Orban's 16-year rule, Reuters reported. Magyar estimates that corruption, including the misuse of public funds, has cost Hungarians between 8% and 10% of gross domestic product in recent years.
A government website records more than 60 cases sent to investigators, involving billions of euros in taxpayer funds, and continues to add cases. Horvath said prosecutors had addressed "only the bare minimum" so far. Anna Unger, Hungary's new top anti-corruption official, has cautioned that securing convictions could take many years.
