Hungary’s new Prime Minister Péter Magyar has confirmed that his official car will be a Škoda Superb and that he will not move into a government residence, presenting the two decisions as a clean break with Viktor Orbán’s 16 years in power, though both arrangements largely mirror what his predecessor and Hungarian ministers were already doing.
In a message posted on social media on May 13, 2026, Magyar said the blue Škoda Superb that he had used during his Tisza Party’s country-wide campaign tour would now serve as his prime ministerial vehicle, and that he would continue living in his Buda family home.
“It became familiar to people across the country during my campaign tour. I will also not be moving into an official government residence,” Magyar wrote, adding that he wanted to remain “in the Buda house where my children are at home”.
The choice has been welcomed by Tisza supporters as a gesture of austerity. The Hungarian press has been swift to point out, though, that the Škoda Superb has been the standard service vehicle for Hungarian ministers and state secretaries since 2011, when Orbán’s first cabinet bought 97 of the model for around 600 million forints (about €1.5 million) through the state procurement office KEF.
According to an inventory of senior officials’ cars published on the government website kormany.hu in 2017, only 11 of the 56 ministerial and state secretary vehicles in service were not Škoda Superbs. The model was already the second-most-used brand in the wider government fleet before 2010, behind Volkswagen.
A new Škoda Superb retails for between 16 million and 26 million forints (€41,000 to €66,500), according to manufacturer data cited by Hungarian outlets. The contrast Magyar has drawn is not with ministers’ cars but with the two armoured BMW 760i Protection xDrive limousines used by Hungary’s Counter-Terrorism Centre (TEK) to escort Orbán, valued at roughly 270 million forints each (about €690,000) in 2025.
Orbán himself never moved into an official residence after returning to power in 2010, continuing to live with his family in his house on Cinege Street in Buda, a fact that Hungarian press reports have flagged in connection with Magyar’s announcement.
Security experts cited by Hungarian outlet 10perc.hu have questioned whether TEK will consider a Škoda Superb and a private family home sufficient to protect a sitting prime minister, raising the prospect of significant adaptation costs at Magyar’s property.
The new head of government has at the same time taken aim at the previous administration’s spending on government buildings, describing the Carmelite Monastery, which housed the prime ministerial offices from 2019 until his arrival, as a “Carmelite Palace” built at taxpayers’ expense.
Magyar took office on Saturday, May 9, after his Tisza Party’s victory in the April 12 parliamentary election, a result welcomed by European Union leaders who had clashed repeatedly with Orbán over rule-of-law concerns. Academic observers, including Hungarian political economist Zoltán Ádám, have warned that the Tisza movement displays its own populist features and risks reproducing the centralised power model of its predecessor.
