Wherever he appears in Hungary, people flock to him cheering. They ask to shake his hand and take selfies. They say things can’t go on as they are, and that he is their great hope.
This man, whom some in Hungary worship like a new messiah, is Peter Magyar, a 44-year-old lawyer from Budapest and political newcomer. He could defeat the country’s authoritarian long-term ruler, Viktor Orban, in the 2026 parliamentary elections.
Magyar looks youthful; he’s usually seen wearing jeans, a white shirt and sneakers, and, according to the polls, he is currently the most popular politician in Hungary. He regularly manages to get hundreds of thousands of people to turn out and protest. For weeks now, he has been touring Hungary’s towns and villages — unlike Orban, who boasts of being a “village boy” and a “street fighter” but is seldom seen on the streets.
Magyar’s party Tisza (Respect and Freedom) is currently polling up to eight percentage points ahead of Orban’s Fidesz (Federation of Young Democrats). While this doesn’t mark the end of Orban’s regime, one thing is clear: Many Hungarians are unhappy with their prime minister’s corrupt, autocratic order, and want change.
Growing dissatisfaction with Orban
Orban has been in power continuously since 2010. Until now, no one has even come close to creating the mood and desire for change that Magyar has achieved. As a political novice, how has he managed this feat?
Many Hungarians have been dissatisfied with Orban’s regime for a long time. The prime minister and those in his circle of power primarily serve their own supporters, who make up about a third of the electorate. Tax breaks and other financial perks are tailored to benefit these people; they are the ones who get the administrative jobs and the government posts, and their companies are given public contracts. Everyone else, all those who are not part of the system, are scraping by or living in precarious circumstances.
Contrary to Orban’s rhetoric that, in Hungary, everything is better than in the rest of the European Union, most public infrastructure is very rundown — from bad roads and neglected hospitals and schools to chaotic administration services.
The increasingly obvious double standards inherent in Orban’s nationalist propaganda have ultimately facilitated Magyar’s rise. Observers had already predicted that the threat to Orban’s regime would come not from leftist or liberal opposition parties, but rather from a renegade within — and this is exactly what has happened.
Just over a year ago, both then-president Katalin Novak and Fidesz’s lead candidate in the European elections, Judit Varga, who was also a former justice minister, were forced to resign amid public uproar when it emerged that they had pardoned a man convicted of aiding and abetting child sex abuse. It was one of many cases in which the constant vilification of homosexuals as supposed child abusers by Orban and his party backfired.
In September 2024, for instance, it was revealed that the Catholic priest Gergo Bese — a vocal Fidesz propagandist and homophobic preacher who had blessed Orban’s official residence — was secretly attending gay sex parties.
Magyar was closely linked to the former justice minister — until the political scandal, he was best known as Varga’s ex-husband. He had held a few financially lucrative but politically insignificant government positions, but was not really known among the general public.
All that changed after the two Fidesz politicians resigned. Magyar gave a long interview, watched by millions of people, in which he denounced the hypocrisy of the Orban regime and said he could no longer bear the lies. When government-aligned media launched attacks against him shortly afterward, he decided to enter party politics and run in the European elections in June 2024.
‘The Tisza flood is coming!’
In order to be allowed to run in the European elections at short notice, he “took over” an existing minor party. Tisza, which had been founded a few years earlier at the local level, had been dormant for some time. But Magyar quickly turned the Tisza brand into a PR success.
The party’s name is both an abbreviation of “Respect and Freedom” and a reference to the Tisza River, which has a very prominent role in Hungarian culture and national mythology. “The Tisza flood is coming!” has become a popular slogan at Magyar’s rallies — and for Orban and Fidesz, the European elections were the first indication of just how powerful that flood might be. Coming from nowhere, Tisza garnered almost 30% of the vote. Fidesz, meanwhile, dropped to 44%, losing eight points.
Magyar also uses skillful political marketing in other ways. He has adopted the rhetoric of Orban and Fidesz, and co-opted their campaign tricks and much of their messaging — with key differences. Those include his pro-European stance, and the promise that Hungary would become a member of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, which facilitates judicial cooperation in criminal matters.
Magyar has linked this pledge to his declaration of intent to systematically fight corruption, and to investigate Orban and his oligarchs for abuse of office and theft of public funds.
Magyar fosters uneasy relationship with media
On the issue of migration, Magyar wants to continue Orban’s strict policies. He has accused the prime minister of hypocrisy, pointing out that his government has brought tens of thousands of non-EU migrant workers into the country. Magyar’s appearances have a similarly populist feel to Orban rallies, but he makes sure to deliver positive messages instead of constantly attacking others, as Orban does. He presents himself, with apparent success, as the honest, better national conservative who is truly committed to the unity of the Hungarian nation.
But much like Orban, Magyar’s relationship with independent journalists and with his role as a public figure can be problematic. In June 2024, he stormed out of a live broadcast on the news channel ATV when he was subjected to critical questioning. Shortly afterward, when a stranger filmed him at a party, he threw the man’s phone into the Danube River. Media outlets loyal to Orban provoked a mudslinging battle around Magyar’s former marriage, in the course of which Magyar released a tape of a private conversation with his ex-wife about a corruption scandal, which he had secretly recorded.
None of this has hurt Magyar, though. Without playing the victim, he has so far managed to present himself as Hungary’s fighter for justice and the law, someone the Orban regime would love to see disappear. The exaggerated daily smear campaigns against Magyar in the government-loyal media probably also help; even many Fidesz supporters find them hard to believe.
Orban: Tisza has made ‘a pact with Brussels’
Magyar orchestrated his latest “coup” at a rally on April 13 at which he presented the results of a so-called “national consultation” on Ukraine’s potential EU membership — ahead of Orban.
These national consultation surveys, in which citizens are sent leading questions to answer, were actually first thought up by Orban. The results are always overwhelmingly in favor of whatever it is Orban wants approved. Hungary’s government has refused to allow the responses to be independently counted or examined.
Orban has indicated he wants Hungarians to oppose the latest consultation, on Ukraine. But ahead of the government’s results, thousands of Magyar’s Tisza activists traveled to every town and village in Hungary and conducted their own surveys, including on the topic of Ukraine. The result: 58% of Hungarians support Ukraine joining the EU. Orban’s response, posted on Facebook, was swift, and, as so often, startlingly crude.
The “pro-Ukrainian Tisza party,” he said, had made a “pact with Brussels,” and was “placing Hungary’s future in Brussels’ hands in exchange for power.” He declared that this must not be allowed to happen.
This article was originally written in German.
