The new government of Hungary has decided not to pay Viktor Orban the legally prescribed severance of 107,000 euros. And there is nothing accidental about it - the law was passed by Orban's own government when it had a majority. Now the new prime minister, Peter Magyar, is saying: the law exists, but I have no intention of applying it.

Magyar's logic is sharp and simple: „I don't think it's right to pay that kind of money to politicians who left behind only debts and corruption schemes”. In other words: you wrote the rule for yourself, and now it stands against you. The opposite angle - that the law should apply even when you don't want it to - doesn't get a hearing here.

The Hungarian political right and left have never been so dramatically split. Orban ruled for four terms, built a system in which friendly oligarchs profited and independent media were shuttered. Magyar, leader of the TISZA party, came to power on promises of breaking that structure - and the first thing he did is break a law that Orban himself wrote.

For the Balkan reader, this is a familiar drama. When power changes hands, the new lot discovers that the old lot left them plenty of legal landmines. Some they enforce - regretting that they couldn't dodge them. Others they ignore - with the excuse that they aren't moral. Which of the two approaches is more correct? The question is rhetorical.

Analysts expect Magyar's move to land with strong public support. Hungarians, like everyone in the region, are tired of systems in which politicians declare themselves a separate caste. The question is how long that mood will last - history says new governments behave like the old ones, only with different names on the receipts. Magyar now has to prove he is the exception. The odds of that in our part of the world are well known.