Fidesz communications chief Havasi Bertalan urges media staff cuts after historic election loss

Havasi Bertalan, the communications director of Hungary’s ruling Fidesz party, told a media interview that the party suffered a historic defeat and that the right‑wing press now faces a bleak outlook. He warned that anyone shocked by the loss should leave politics and called for a rapid rationalisation of the party‑affiliated media outlets. Havasi said the current workforce of roughly 4,000 staff at the civil‑media workshops should be reduced to about 2,500 and that many studios in Budapest could be merged or closed to save costs.

He stressed that Fidesz has no media‑ownership strategy and that any decisions about operating news portals or TV stations must be made by the owners themselves. In a separate exchange, a Hír TV presenter complained about the difficulty of living on market wages, to which Havasi replied that winning the election would have made cooperation with the government easier, underscoring the pressure on media businesses in the current environment.