From loyalist to leader: Rise of Peter Magyar

Now or never”, Péter Magyar told Hungar­ians, in a breathless campaign that ultimately brought down the man he rebelled against two years before. The 45-year-old former Fidesz party insider then shortened his message to “Now”, crossing out the words “or never”, adding to the urgency, BBC reported.

Magyar’s slogan da­tes back to a revolutionary poet’s 19th Century rallying cry to rise up for the homeland. Accord­ing to his narrative, that is what the voters ultimately did, to sweep Viktor Orbán from office after 16 years in power, in a landslide defeat. In his victory speech beside the River Danu­be in Budapest, the leader of the Tisza party told Hunga­ri­ans: “We want to be a country that is no-one’s vassal, where achievement counts, and a country whose citizens can count on their government.”

Magyar built a powerful support base in more than two years of touring the country, even in the small towns and villages were Fidesz traditionally dominates, and he criss-crossed Hungary in a marathon election campaign of up to seven speeches a day, Last year he walked 300km from Budapest to the Romanian border in a campaign to “reunite” the nation, in a bid to bring natural Fidesz voters to his side.

Magyar has promised to tackle corruption, improve the economy and he has sought to woo Hungary’s disadvantaged Roma community. He has also promised to unlock billions of euros in EU funds, frozen largely because of concerns over Hungary’s rule of law.

But Orbán has depicted him as a “puppet” of the EU and Ukraine, and while he has been wary of getting too close to Brussels he now aims to repair relations that have become seriously impaired in recent months. His self-confidence stems from a deep understanding of the rival he faces. Until February 2024, Magyar was very much part of the Fidesz family. He joined the party at university and married one of its rising stars in Judit Varga, with whom he had three children. Then Magyar stunned Hungarians with a live appearance on a pro-opposition YouTube Channel called Partizán.