{"id":449962,"date":"2026-04-10T13:23:49","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T11:23:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2026\/04\/10\/chi-e-peter-magyar-lex-braccio-destro-di-orban-che-ora-guida-la-sfida-al-suo-sistema-di-potere\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T14:33:59","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T12:33:59","slug":"who-is-peter-magyar-orbans-former-right%e2%80%91hand-man-now-leading-the-challenge-to-his-system-of-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2026\/04\/10\/who-is-peter-magyar-orbans-former-right%e2%80%91hand-man-now-leading-the-challenge-to-his-system-of-power\/","title":{"rendered":"Who is P\u00e9ter Magyar, Orb\u00e1n\u2019s former right\u2011hand man now leading the challenge to his system of power"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels \u2013 The first person to succeed in bringing an end to the system of power established by Hungary\u2019s Prime Minister, Viktor Orb\u00e1n<\/strong>, after sixteen consecutive years in office, could be one of his former closest aides. According to the latest polls<\/a> conducted ahead of this Sunday\u2019s Hungarian elections<\/strong> (12 April), TISZA<\/strong> \u2013 the party led by 46-year-old lawyer P\u00e9ter Magyar<\/strong> \u2013 is set to win 49 percent<\/strong> of the vote, ten points ahead of Fidesz<\/strong>, Orb\u00e1n\u2019s political creation, which is expected to secure 39 percent<\/strong>. But the story of TISZA\u2019s leader \u2013 and his political trajectory \u2013 is very different from what one might expect, and they explain a great deal about what to expect should he become prime minister.<\/p>\n

 Joining Fidesz and his career in Brussels<\/strong> <\/h4>\n

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 M\u00e1dl<\/strong>, President of the Republic from 2000 to 2005, while his childhood friend was Gergely Guly\u00e1s<\/strong>, who today serves as the Prime Minister\u2019s Chief of Staff. In the early 2000s, he enrolled in the Faculty of Law<\/strong> at the Catholic University of Budapest,<\/strong> and it was during his studies \u2013 following Orb\u00e1n\u2019s defeat in the 2002 parliamentary elections \u2013 that Magyar decided to join Fidesz<\/strong>, thus entering that “inner circle” in which he would remain for over twenty years. <\/p>\n

The young lawyer rose rapidly through the party ranks alongside another activist, Judit Varga<\/strong>, who would become his wife in 2006. In 2011, during Hungary\u2019s six-month presidency of the Council of the European Union, Magyar and Varga moved to Brussels<\/strong> to work respectively as a diplomat at the Permanent Representation of Hungary to the EU<\/strong> and as a political adviser to the Fidesz MEP J\u00e1nos \u00c1der<\/strong>. In 2015, Magyar was also tasked with managing relations between the Orb\u00e1n government and the European Parliament, not an easy task given the frequent clashes between Budapest and Strasbourg. <\/p>\n

The return to Budapest: roles in state-owned companies and the first tensions with Orb\u00e1n<\/strong> <\/h4>\n

Upon their return home after nearly a decade in the Belgian capital, the Magyars\u2019 influence within Orb\u00e1n\u2019s power structure had grown considerably. P\u00e9ter thus joined the boards of several state-owned companies<\/strong>, while Judit chose to enter politics directly, and, in 2019, took up the post of Minister of Justice<\/strong>. Just as her career seemed to be taking off, she began what, in a recent interview<\/a> with the BBC, Magyar described as a \u201cgradual disaffection<\/strong>\u201d towards Orb\u00e1n, Fidesz, and the entire power structure revolving around the Budapest government. \u201cAfter a while, I became more and more critical, openly and just among friends,\u201d 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.\u201d <\/p>\n

The reference is to the major political scandal<\/a> in 2024 involving the President of the Republic, Katalin Nov\u00e1k<\/strong>, and Varga herself, from whom Magyar had separated the previous year. In early February, it was revealed that Nov\u00e1k had granted a pardon to a man convicted of covering up several cases of child sexual abuse<\/strong> within a state-run children\u2019s home. The case received significant media coverage, and within a few days, Nov\u00e1k stepped down as head of state,<\/strong> and Varga,<\/strong> who had already resigned as minister in 2023 to stand as a candidate in the following year\u2019s European elections but had countersigned the pardon before leaving the Ministry, gave up her seat in the national Parliament<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Departure from Fidesz and a new role as opposition leader <\/strong><\/h4>\n

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<\/strong>. \u201cThose who truly hold power are trying to hide behind women\u2019s skirts<\/strong>,\u201d was Magyar\u2019s accusation, a clear reference to the fact that Nov\u00e1k and Varga had been used as scapegoats for an entire corrupt power structure. <\/p>\n

The comments posted on Facebook, combined with a subsequent interview<\/a> on a popular anti-government YouTube channel, rapidly boosted Magyar\u2019s popularity, and he began to present himself as the new leader of the opposition<\/strong> and the symbol of the fight against corruption<\/strong> within Orb\u00e1n\u2019s inner circle. Between February and March 2024, there were several anti-government protests<\/a> 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 Orb\u00e1n\u2019s mismanagement of the economy, announced his joining TISZA<\/strong>, a political force founded in 2020 but until then entirely irrelevant on the Hungarian political scene. <\/p>\n

With less than three months to conduct its election campaign, TISZA secured 29.6 percent<\/strong> of the vote in the European elections<\/strong> in June, managing to elect seven MEPs. Fidesz won 44.8 percent<\/strong>, but by the autumn of 2024, Orb\u00e1n\u2019s party had already been overtaken<\/strong> by Magyar\u2019s in the polls: a gap that has widened over the last year and a half, making the Prime Minister\u2019s former right-hand man the favorite to win this Sunday\u2019s vote. <\/p>\n

After Orb\u00e1n, another right-wing government?<\/strong><\/h4>\n

 Understanding Magyar\u2019s political history is essential to avoid the mistake<\/a> of regarding him as a progressive leader or a representative of the Hungarian center-left. TISZA is part of the European People\u2019s Party<\/strong>, the main center-right political group within the EU, and the ideals enshrined in its election manifesto are those typical of conservative Christianity<\/strong>. On foreign policy, Magyar has a fully pro-European stance and opposes the rapprochement between Moscow and Budapest pursued by Orb\u00e1n. 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\u2019s accession to the EU<\/strong> and leading his MEPs to oppose the new 90 billion euro loan to Kyiv<\/strong>. <\/p>\n

The real turning point \u2013 at least in words \u2013 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From his career within Fidesz to his split with the party following the scandals: the leader of TISZA is the favorite for Sunday\u2019s election and is staking everything on the fight against corruption, but regarding Ukraine, he may follow in his predecessor\u2019s footsteps.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7899,"featured_media":358437,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25681],"tags":[25833,33657,33728,26023],"class_list":["post-449962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-elezioni-in-ungheria","tag-magyar","tag-orban-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7899"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=449962"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449962\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":449963,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449962\/revisions\/449963"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/358437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=449962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=449962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=449962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}