budapest, hungary —
When Péter Magyar was growing up during Hungary’s democratic transition, he had a poster of Viktor Orbán on his bedroom wall. At the time, Orbán was a liberal anti-communist and famously called for the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Hungary.
Mr. Magyar is now expected to end Mr. Orbán’s 16-year term as Hungary’s prime minister.
The stage for Sunday’s parliamentary vote tilted towards the Magyars. Observers say Hungary’s highly gerrymandered electoral system and pro-government media environment make Hungary’s elections free, but not fair.
For many Hungarians, especially those who grew up knowing little but Orbán’s government, this moment has been years in the making.
“We’ve been waiting for this for a long time. A really long time,” said Dora, a 30-year-old lawyer who was among the thousands of people who gathered on the banks of Budapest’s Danube River on Sunday to hear the election results.
Magyar wins Hungarian general election, crowd chants “Europe”
Toned, well-dressed and some 17 years younger than Orbán, the 45-year-old Magyar (his last name means “Hungarian”) comes from a wealthy family in Budapest. His relatives include lawyers, judges, and former Hungarian president Ferenc Madr, who served as president of Hungary from 2000 to 2005, Orbán’s first term.
Magyar’s journey from Orbán supporter to nemesis was swift. Just two years earlier, he had married Judith Varga, a member of the ruling Fidesz party and once one of the party’s rising stars.
The couple lived in Brussels, Belgium, for about 10 years, where Magyar worked as a diplomat and Varga worked as a Fidesz MEP. The two returned to Budapest in 2018 with their three sons. The following year, Mr. Varga was appointed Mr. Orban’s justice minister, but left the post in 2023 to lead Mr. Fidesz into the 2024 European Parliament elections.
That plan was upended by the scandal that rocked Fidesz in early 2024. Hungarian President Katalin Novak at the time pardoned a former official convicted of helping cover up the abuse of minors at an orphanage. The pardon revelations shattered many people’s perception of Orbán’s government as a champion of Christianity and family values.
“The core of Fidesz’s self-definition is that it is conservative, family-friendly and protects children,” Péter Kleko, a political scientist who runs the Budapest think tank Political Capital, told CNN.
Kleko said the pardon scandal exposed the “hypocrisy” of the Orbán plan for many voters. Varga, who also played a role in the pardon, has resigned, but many see her resignation as forced by Orbán.
According to Kleko, the Magyars entered the political scene at this moment when “there was a huge demand for someone who could stand up to Orbán.”
In February 2024, Magyar gave a shocking video interview to Hungarian media outlet Partizan, in which he accused Orbán and his allies of “hiding behind women’s skirts” in the pardon scandal. He also used interviews to share information gleaned from his closeness with the government. “A few families own half the country,” he said in an interview. The interview has now been viewed nearly 3 million times in this country of less than 10 million people.
Later that year, Magyar joined the Tisza party and quickly rose through the ranks to become its leader. Under his leadership, Tisza unexpectedly won almost 30% of the Hungarian vote in the June 2024 European Parliament elections, making Magyars a member of parliament.
Hungarians, increasingly fed up with Orbán but without a credible opposition party, were suddenly presented with a viable political alternative. Since then, party membership has increased rapidly. “Tisza” is an acronym for the Hungarian words meaning “respect and freedom” and is also the name of the country’s main river. This party is often referred to as “sweeping” or “flooding” Hungary.
While Mr. Orbán’s campaign this year revolved primarily around foreign policy and relations with world leaders, Mr. Magyar’s campaign focused squarely on domestic issues such as the economy and corruption.
Over the past two years, he has also sought to build direct relationships with voters, visiting many towns and cities, often staying several hours after a speech to meet with locals.
From the beginning, corruption was a major theme of the Magyars’ election campaign. In an interview with Partisan, he suggested that Orbán’s self-image as a defender of national sovereignty was “a façade to hide the workings of the power apparatus and to acquire vast wealth.”
President Orban has frequently used this “power structure” to discredit his opponents. In 2022, he painted Péter Marki-Zay as a dangerous enemy of peace, stoked Hungarian fears of war in neighboring Ukraine, and undermined his candidacy.
Kleko, the political scientist, said President Orbán was unable to find a credible attack on the Magyars. Knowing how Orbán’s system worked, Magyar was able to “pre-empt” the attack before it landed, he said.
In February, for example, the Magyar state said Fidesz intended to blackmail him by releasing secretly recorded videos of “intimate moments with his then-girlfriend.”
“Yes, I’m a 45-year-old man. I have a sex life. I have an adult partner,” he said. “Dear Fidesz coward, now reveal everything.” So far, sexual kompromat, if any, have not been made public.
His Magyar language made it difficult for Fidesz to portray him as a liberal. When President Orbán banned Budapest’s Pride marches last year as part of a long-standing effort to demonize the LGBTQ movement, Magyars refused to take the bait. In a carefully worded statement, he declined to name the movement, saying instead that Orbán’s government’s aim was to “instill fear and divide us” and stressed that Hungary needed a prime minister who “protects and represents all Hungarians.”
He is equally cautious about Ukraine, which Prime Minister Orbán has also criticized. Mr. Magyar essentially refused to discuss foreign policy during the election campaign to avoid being portrayed as a European liberal politician, which Mr. Fidesz had long attacked.
The Magyar president’s near-silence on the Ukraine issue has led some to speculate that his Hungary, like Orbán, may thwart European Union efforts to support Kiev. But Mujtaba Rahman, managing director for Europe at political risk consultancy Eurasia Group, said many in Brussels understood that Mr. Magyar was simply aiming to thwart Mr. Fidesz’s attack vector.
“They understand that Magyar will be a completely different proposition,” Rahman told CNN. “Mr. Magyar is not Mr. Orbán. He does not fit the mold of populism or nationalism.”
Magyar will hope to improve relations with Brussels, as the European Commission, the EU’s executive body, is currently withholding some 18 billion euros ($21 billion) in funding from Hungary over concerns about democratic backsliding under Orbán. The freezing of these funds, which represent around 10% of the country’s national output, has further deepened Hungary’s economic slump.
Kleko said before the victory was announced that many Hungarians, including those opposed to Orbán, were somewhat wary of the Magyars.
“He brought together a very wide range of camps, from the very conservative right to the hardcore liberals and left,” he said. “The vote for Péter Magyar is primarily an anti-Orbán vote.”
It remains to be seen whether the Magyars will be able to maintain this coalition. During his election campaign, he insisted at length that the task of “rebuilding” Hungary would take time. He promised to dismantle Orbán’s illiberal political system “step by step, brick by brick.” It certainly takes time.
