{"id":35972,"date":"2026-04-13T11:52:38","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T11:52:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/?p=35972"},"modified":"2026-04-13T11:55:51","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T11:55:51","slug":"orban-loses-in-hungary-could-this-spell-the-end-for-oliver-varhelyi-as-health-commissioner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/post\/orban-loses-in-hungary-could-this-spell-the-end-for-oliver-varhelyi-as-health-commissioner\/","title":{"rendered":"Orb\u00e1n loses in Hungary. Could this spell the end for Oliv\u00e9r V\u00e1rhelyi as Health Commissioner?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n

The Hungarian Commissioner and Orb\u00e1n loyalist has been at the vanguard of spreading outright falsehoods about safer nicotine products. Now Orb\u00e1n is gone, will he go too?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many in Brussels were popping champagne last night as quasi-dictator Viktor Orb\u00e1n was decisively ejected from power<\/a> by the Hungarian people.<\/strong> Macron, Merz and von der Leyen celebrated, while Trump and Putin were left licking their wounds as the Hungarian opposition gained the two-thirds parliamentary majority it needed to reverse the many constitutional reforms Orb\u00e1n implemented to keep himself and his cronies in power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His opponent \u2014 P\u00e9ter Magyar (whose last name literally translates to \u201cHungary\u201d) \u2014 is no leftie: his MEPs sit with the Christian Democrats. Magyar is expected to reset Hungary\u2019s battered relationship with the EU and the rest of the continent, starting with the release of a \u20ac90 billion loan facility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His election comes on the back of corruption scandals and economic stagnation. In his first speech as presumptive prime minister, he told onlookers in Budapest that he plans to clean house, calling out waves of Orb\u00e1n-appointed officials whose resignation he expects imminently. But one name was absent from the list: Oliv\u00e9r V\u00e1rhelyi, Hungary\u2019s EU Commissioner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Politically stranded<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Without Orb\u00e1n\u2019s support, V\u00e1rhelyi finds himself stranded and unloved at the Commission. He is caught up in a scandal<\/a> dating back to his time as Hungary\u2019s top diplomat in Brussels, when a spy ring was found to have operated out of the embassy he led. He has denied all knowledge, but few believe him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Magyar himself worked at the Hungarian Representation to the EU when V\u00e1rhelyi ran it, and has been blunt about what he knows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cIn my opinion, Oliv\u00e9r V\u00e1rhelyi, the current EU Commissioner and former EU Ambassador (and my former boss), did not reveal the whole truth when he denied this during the official investigation the other day,\u201d Magyar told Politico<\/em> in January.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was a common fact at the EU Embassy in Brussels that, during the period of J\u00e1nos L\u00e1z\u00e1r\u2019s ministry in 2015\u20132018, secret service personnel were deployed to Brussels.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Commission is currently investigating. Removing an Orb\u00e1n loyalist while Orb\u00e1n was still in power would have been difficult and likely would have worsened Hungary\u2019s intransigence on European economic and security policy. Now that Orb\u00e1n is gone, and his favoured officials are on the way out, V\u00e1rhelyi finds himself isolated and mistrusted in the Berlaymont.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So can they get rid of him?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In short, yes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Health and Animal Welfare Commissioner \u2014 whose repeated false claims about safer nicotine products have been covered extensively by Clearing the Air<\/em> \u2014 can be dismissed by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen under Article 17(6) of the EU Treaties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This power has never been formally used, but the threat of it has led to the resignation of previous Commissioners: Maltese Commissioner John Dalli, over allegations that he attempted to extort Swedish Match during the last revision of the EU\u2019s tobacco laws, and Irish Commissioner Phil Hogan, over his breach of COVID regulations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Governments often change while their appointed Commissioners remain in office, but dismissal for political reasons is extremely rare. That said, if the Commission concludes that V\u00e1rhelyi misled investigators about the spy ring operating out of the embassy he led, that would be an offence comparable to those that led to the departures of Dalli and Hogan, particularly since Orban\u2019s foreign Minister, Peter Szijjarto, has been accused of leaking the EU Council\u2019s private deliberations to Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Von der Leyen is known to have consolidated her grip on the Commission this term, and she could accelerate the investigation now that it suits her politically. Magyar, it seems, may be able to provide incriminating evidence, giving the incoming Hungarian prime minister the opportunity to appoint one of his own to the role in Brussels. He is likely to be tempted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Would that mean a step change in nicotine policy?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Probably not, but it could at least signal a more rational approach. A new Commissioner would come under immediate pressure from all sides on the future of the file, likely leading to delays. My expectation is still that the Commission will table a proposal in mid-December (and yes, I have actually placed a bet on the date), but a new Commissioner could push that into early or mid-2027.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another question mark now hangs over how the Fidesz group in the European Parliament will vote on safer nicotine issues. While they could previously be relied upon to support their Commissioner, from opposition \u2014 and with their own electorates to consider \u2014 their votes may now be more fluid. V\u00e1rhelyi\u2019s position currently splits the EU\u2019s populist-nationalist group, Patriots for Europe, whose non-Hungarian members might otherwise have little choice but to support him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And while V\u00e1rhelyi\u2019s record on nicotine policy is unlikely to be what ultimately brings him down, if he does end up on the chopping block, readers of this outlet will not miss him.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Hungarian Commissioner and Orb\u00e1n loyalist has been at the vanguard of spreading outright falsehoods about safer nicotine products. Now Orb\u00e1n is gone, will he go too? Many in Brussels were popping champagne last night as quasi-dictator Viktor Orb\u00e1n was decisively ejected…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":990004,"featured_media":36006,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[257],"tags":[27,337,186],"slider":[],"class_list":["post-35972","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-article","tag-hungary","tag-nicotine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35972","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/990004"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35972"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35972\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35980,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35972\/revisions\/35980"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35972"},{"taxonomy":"slider","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/slider?post=35972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}