Brussels – The first person to succeed in bringing an end to the system of power established by Hungary’s Prime Minister, Viktor Orbán, after sixteen consecutive years in office, could be one of his former closest aides. According to the latest polls conducted ahead of this Sunday’s Hungarian elections (12 April), TISZA – the party led by 46-year-old lawyer Péter Magyar – is set to win 49 percent of the vote, ten points ahead of Fidesz, Orbán’s political creation, which is expected to secure 39 percent. But the story of TISZA’s leader – and his political trajectory – is very different from what one might expect, and they explain a great deal about what to expect should he become prime minister.
Joining Fidesz and his career in Brussels
Born in Budapest in 1981, Magyar became familiar with Hungarian politics from an early age: the son of two prominent lawyers, his godfather was Ferenc Mádl, President of the Republic from 2000 to 2005, while his childhood friend was Gergely Gulyás, who today serves as the Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff. In the early 2000s, he enrolled in the Faculty of Law at the Catholic University of Budapest, and it was during his studies – following Orbán’s defeat in the 2002 parliamentary elections – that Magyar decided to join Fidesz, thus entering that “inner circle” in which he would remain for over twenty years.
The young lawyer rose rapidly through the party ranks alongside another activist, Judit Varga, who would become his wife in 2006. In 2011, during Hungary’s six-month presidency of the Council of the European Union, Magyar and Varga moved to Brussels to work respectively as a diplomat at the Permanent Representation of Hungary to the EU and as a political adviser to the Fidesz MEP János Áder. In 2015, Magyar was also tasked with managing relations between the Orbán government and the European Parliament, not an easy task given the frequent clashes between Budapest and Strasbourg.
The return to Budapest: roles in state-owned companies and the first tensions with Orbán
Upon their return home after nearly a decade in the Belgian capital, the Magyars’ influence within Orbán’s power structure had grown considerably. Péter thus joined the boards of several state-owned companies, while Judit chose to enter politics directly, and, in 2019, took up the post of Minister of Justice. Just as her career seemed to be taking off, she began what, in a recent interview with the BBC, Magyar described as a “gradual disaffection” towards Orbán, Fidesz, and the entire power structure revolving around the Budapest government. “After a while, I became more and more critical, openly and just among friends,” she explained. “I was always told by the politicians it’s necessary to keep power – I accepted it for a time. But of course, the turning point was in 2024.”
The reference is to the major political scandal in 2024 involving the President of the Republic, Katalin Novák, and Varga herself, from whom Magyar had separated the previous year. In early February, it was revealed that Novák had granted a pardon to a man convicted of covering up several cases of child sexual abuse within a state-run children’s home. The case received significant media coverage, and within a few days, Novák stepped down as head of state, and Varga, who had already resigned as minister in 2023 to stand as a candidate in the following year’s European elections but had countersigned the pardon before leaving the Ministry, gave up her seat in the national Parliament.
Departure from Fidesz and a new role as opposition leader
Following this incident, Magyar came out into the open and, in a Facebook post, announced his intention to resign from all his posts in state-owned companies and to leave Fidesz for good. “Those who truly hold power are trying to hide behind women’s skirts,” was Magyar’s accusation, a clear reference to the fact that Novák and Varga had been used as scapegoats for an entire corrupt power structure.
The comments posted on Facebook, combined with a subsequent interview on a popular anti-government YouTube channel, rapidly boosted Magyar’s popularity, and he began to present himself as the new leader of the opposition and the symbol of the fight against corruption within Orbán’s inner circle. Between February and March 2024, there were several anti-government protests that gathered tens of thousands of people, and it was during one of these protests that Magyar, once again pointing the finger at rampant corruption and Orbán’s mismanagement of the economy, announced his joining TISZA, a political force founded in 2020 but until then entirely irrelevant on the Hungarian political scene.
With less than three months to conduct its election campaign, TISZA secured 29.6 percent of the vote in the European elections in June, managing to elect seven MEPs. Fidesz won 44.8 percent, but by the autumn of 2024, Orbán’s party had already been overtaken by Magyar’s in the polls: a gap that has widened over the last year and a half, making the Prime Minister’s former right-hand man the favorite to win this Sunday’s vote.
After Orbán, another right-wing government?
Understanding Magyar’s political history is essential to avoid the mistake of regarding him as a progressive leader or a representative of the Hungarian center-left. TISZA is part of the European People’s Party, the main center-right political group within the EU, and the ideals enshrined in its election manifesto are those typical of conservative Christianity. On foreign policy, Magyar has a fully pro-European stance and opposes the rapprochement between Moscow and Budapest pursued by Orbán. However, with regard to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Magyar has on several occasions expressed positions not dissimilar to those of his predecessor, taking a stand against Ukraine’s accession to the EU and leading his MEPs to oppose the new 90 billion euro loan to Kyiv.
The real turning point – at least in words – will come in the fight against corruption and in the attempt to restore the rule of law. As for the rest, it is likely that Hungary will continue to be led by a center-right politician.
English version by the Translation Service of Withub
