{"id":522888,"date":"2026-04-10T06:57:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T06:57:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/522888\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T06:57:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T06:57:09","slug":"who-is-peter-magyar-the-man-leading-the-polls-as-hungary-prepares-for-election-hungary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/522888\/","title":{"rendered":"Who is P\u00e9ter Magyar, the man leading the polls as Hungary prepares for election? | Hungary"},"content":{"rendered":"

As a child growing up in Budapest, P\u00e9ter Magyar had a poster of Viktor Orb\u00e1n<\/a> \u2013 at the time a leading figure in the country\u2019s pro-democracy movement \u2013 hanging above his bed. Orb\u00e1n was one of several political figures that adorned his bedroom, Magyar told a podcast last year, hinting at his excitement over the changes sweeping the country after the collapse of communism.<\/p>\n

Now Magyar, 45, is the driving force behind what could be another momentous political change<\/a> in Hungary: the ousting of Orb\u00e1n, whose 16 years in power has transformed the country<\/a> into a \u201cpetri dish for illiberalism\u201d.<\/p>\n

Few could have predicted the meteoric rise of Magyar and his Tisza party. \u201cHe has built an opposition movement at amazing speed,\u201d said G\u00e1bor Gy\u0151ri of Policy Solutions, a Budapest-based political research institute. \u201cNever, since the history of this post-transition Hungary<\/a>, have we seen a party rise this quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Conversations with those who know Magyar often alternate between admiration and antipathy. Many praise the tremendous movement he has built and the discipline he has shown as he crisscrosses the country, giving up to six speeches a day, while also describing him as someone with a short temper and a style that can be abrasive at times.<\/p>\n

Others see him as the perfect fit for the magnitude of the moment. \u201cI think, like all politicians, he can be a difficult person,\u201d said Tam\u00e1s Topol\u00e1nszky, a film-maker who was part of a team that spent the past 18 months following Magyar for a film on the wider change sweeping Hungarian society.<\/p>\n

Topol\u00e1nszky described Magyar as authentic and passionate, but also someone who could be impatient at times. \u201cI think that this is something that we Hungarians now see was necessary to get us to this point.\u201d<\/p>\n

From behind his lens, Topol\u00e1nszky tracked Magyar as he began turning up in villages and towns across Hungary, steadily chipping away at the apathy that had long characterised Hungarian politics. \u201cThe energy at these rallies was something I\u2019ve never experienced before,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Pet\u00e9r Magyar, front centre, during a rally in Budapest last month. The Tisza party leader has crossed Hungary in his campaign, giving up to six speeches a day. Photograph: Akos Stiller\/Bloomberg\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Adding to Magyar\u2019s singular rise are his deep entanglements with Orb\u00e1n\u2019s Fidesz party. Much of his life has been spent hobnobbing among its elite inner circles. His close friends have included Gergely Guly\u00e1s, Orb\u00e1n\u2019s chief of staff, and in 2006 Magyar married Judit Varga, a former justice minister for Fidesz. He served as a Hungarian diplomat in Brussels and held senior positions in state entities.<\/p>\n

Magyar catapulted into the limelight in 2024 after it emerged that Orb\u00e1n\u2019s government \u2013 which for years had built its brand on defending Christian families and protecting children \u2013 had pardoned a man<\/a> convicted of helping to cover up a sex abuse scandal at a children\u2019s home. Varga, who by then was Magyar\u2019s ex-wife, resigned, along with Hungary\u2019s president, Katalin Nov\u00e1k<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Magyar responded to the news with a blistering post on social media accusing Fidesz officials of scapegoating the two women, or as he wrote: \u201chiding behind women\u2019s skirts\u201d.<\/p>\n

He then continued to speak up, rattling<\/a> Hungarian society as a prominent insider who was now laying bare the working of what he described as a rotten system. In Magyar\u2019s telling, Fidesz was a \u201cpolitical product\u201d that had been marketed to citizens while officials expanded their power and wealth at the expense of ordinary Hungarians.<\/p>\n

The message resonated strongly, landing as many in the country were grappling with the soaring cost of living, fraying public services, and salaries that had long been stagnant. After an estimated 35,000 people turned up to a protest helmed by Magyar in March 2024, he launched his movement.<\/p>\n

While his status as a former Fidesz member had grabbed people\u2019s attention, it proved complicated for his new political life. In Topol\u00e1nszky\u2019s documentary, Spring Wind, Magyar was asked:<\/a> \u201cWho are you friends with now?\u201d After a pause, he answered: \u201cThat\u2019s a good question. It\u2019s hard to say whether you have real friends in a situation like this.\u201d<\/p>\n

While many across the country have enthusiastically rallied behind Magyar and his Tisza party, a segment of his own voters continue to view him with scepticism.<\/p>\n

Anita, from Kecskem\u00e9t, admitted her planned vote for the Tisza party was a gamble, but \u2018Fidesz needs to go\u2019. Photograph: Zsuzsa Darab\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

\u201cMagyar is not a saint, but Fidesz needs to go,\u201d said Anita, 33, as she walked her dog in a park in Kecskem\u00e9t, a small city about 50 miles south of Budapest. She readily admitted that her vote for Tisza was a gamble, one born out of desperate hope that Magyar would prove to be fundamentally different from the other members of Fidesz.<\/p>\n

But she saw no other choice, she said, given the rampant graft that had resulted in the country becoming the most corrupt<\/a> in the EU, clawing away funds for public services and leaving ordinary Hungarians such as herself struggling to make ends meet. \u201cAnything is better than this quiet death,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Topol\u00e1nszky sees Magyar\u2019s unusual background as an asset, as it makes him relatable in a country where the government\u2019s deep reach into local politics, culture and universities has made many fearful of speaking out. \u201cHe\u2019s an inside man who gave up everything \u2013 all the benefits \u2013 of going along with Fidesz,\u201d the film-maker said.<\/p>\n

Despite more than two years of campaigning and a 240-page election manifesto, the details of what exactly Magyar will do if he gains power remain vague. Much of this is by design: he has run a tight campaign, staying on-message as he has sought to avoid providing fodder for the estimated 80%<\/a> of Hungary\u2019s media that is controlled by Fidesz loyalists.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is very much a dark horse,\u201d said Gy\u0151ri. \u201cWe don\u2019t know much about him.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the exception of migration, where he has vowed to take a harder line than Orb\u00e1n by scrapping the country\u2019s guest worker scheme, Magyar has committed to doing away with many of the most problematic parts of Orb\u00e1n\u2019s programme.<\/p>\n

He has vowed to restore democratic checks and balances, repair relations with the EU to unlock frozen EU funds, and crack down on corruption. He has promised to end the dependence on Russian energy by 2035 while striving<\/a> for \u201cpragmatic relations\u201d with Moscow.<\/p>\n

A pro-government billboard in Budapest shows an image of Magyar alongside one of Ukraine\u2019s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, with the text: \u2018They are dangerous\u2019 and \u2018Let\u2019s stop them, just Fidesz.\u2019 Photograph: Attila Kisbenedek\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

When it comes to Ukraine, Magyar would continue Orb\u00e1n\u2019s opposition to sending arms to the country and fast-tracking EU entry for Kyiv. Even so, it would not take much to reset Hungary\u2019s relationship<\/a> with the bloc, said Gy\u0151ri. \u201cI think what people underestimate is that if Hungary stops vetoing vital EU action in the European Council, that\u2019s a major breakthrough,\u201d he said. \u201cYou don\u2019t have to have P\u00e9ter Magyar go out and say: \u2018We\u2019re enthusiastic about helping Ukraine or everything the EU does.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

When it comes to other key issues, such as the efforts by Orb\u00e1n and his government to ban Pride events,<\/a> Magyar has steered clear. \u201cSo gender and sexual minorities, he just doesn\u2019t address,\u201d said Gy\u0151ri. \u201cEverybody assumes that he will be a lot friendlier on these issues than the Fidesz government was, and it\u2019s probably true, but he just doesn\u2019t talk about them. So this is speculative.\u201d<\/p>\n

Looming over the campaign is the question of what a Tisza-led government would realistically be able to do, were it to win the election. During Fidesz\u2019s 16 years in power, the party stacked the Hungarian state, media and judiciary with loyalists; how they would respond to a potential change in government remains up in the air.<\/p>\n

And then there is the two-thirds majority needed to amend the constitution and key laws, meaning Tisza\u2019s ability to change Hungary could be limited if the party wins but falls short of a supermajority.<\/p>\n

Despite all this, Hungarians had rallied around Magyar in huge numbers, said \u00c1kos Hadh\u00e1zy, a Hungarian independent MP and longtime critic of Orb\u00e1n. For many in the country, Magyar \u2013 flaws and all \u2013 was now the best hope of dismantling<\/a> the deep changes wrought by Orb\u00e1n and his Fidesz party.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen it comes to P\u00e9ter Magyar, there are both question marks and exclamation marks,\u201d he said. \u201cBut Hungarian society has accepted this.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As a child growing up in Budapest, P\u00e9ter Magyar had a poster of Viktor Orb\u00e1n \u2013 at the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":522889,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-522888","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=522888"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522888\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/522889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=522888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=522888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=522888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}