interview<\/a> with Hungarian podcast Fokuszcsoport last October, Magyar said that as a young boy, he was inspired by Orban and his politics because of the manner in which he led Hungary\u2019s pro-democracy protests in 1989 against the Soviet Union and the Moscow-backed communist leadership in Budapest.<\/p>\n\u201cThere was a surge of energy around the regime change that swept me up as a child,\u201d Magyar said.<\/p>\n
In September 2006, Magyar legally assisted Orban\u2019s Fidesz party on a no-fee basis. The main opposition party at the time, Fidesz, was taking part in a series of anti-government protests against then prime minister, Ferenc Gyurcsany. He had admitted lying about the country\u2019s economic condition. That same year, Magyar married Judit Varga, who would later serve as Orban\u2019s justice minister between 2019-23. They have three children.<\/p>\n
In 2010, when Fidesz returned to power and Orban became prime minister again, Magyar was appointed as an official in the ministry of foreign affairs. In 2011, he joined the Permanent Representation of Hungary to the European Union in Brussels.<\/p>\n
After his tenure in Brussels, he returned to Hungary in 2018 and was appointed to the board of directors of state-owned road operation and maintenance company Magyar K\u00f6z\u00fat ZRT. He also became the head of the Orban government\u2019s student loan provider.<\/p>\n
Why did Magyar become Orban\u2019s opponent?<\/h2>\n
Since his entry into politics, Magyar always served as a loyal Fidesz official. But a scandal in 2024 soured his relationship with the party.<\/p>\n
In February 2024, it became known that almost a year earlier, Hungary\u2019s former president Katalin Novak had pardoned a man convicted for helping cover up a sex abuse case in a children\u2019s home. Also implicated in the pardon was Varga, who had signed the pardon as justice minister.<\/p>\n
Varga had in 2023 resigned from her role as justice minister to lead Fidesz\u2019s charge in the 2024 European parliamentary elections, and at the time, was widely seen as a potential successor to Orban. Magyar and Varga divorced in 2023.<\/p>\n
Protests broke out after the revelations surrounding the children\u2019s home scandal. Novak resigned as president, and Varga stepped down from her seat in the Hungarian parliament.<\/p>\n
Magyar, meanwhile, emerged as a face of the public outrage over the scandal.<\/p>\n
In March that year, in a Facebook post, he accused Orban\u2019s government of corruption and also published a recording of a January 2023 conversation with his ex-wife in which she detailed an attempt by aides of Orban\u2019s cabinet chief to interfere in the prosecution files of a corruption case.<\/p>\n
He also told Hungarian media outlet Partizan that Orban and his allies were \u201chiding behind women\u2019s skirts\u201d in the scandal.<\/p>\n
Gabor Gyori, a senior analyst at Policy Solutions, a Budapest-based policy research institute, told Al Jazeera that Magyar\u2019s resignation from the party was more of a gradual estrangement.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeter had told local media that he had become disillusioned for sometime and increasingly frustrated with all the problems, the corruption, within Fidesz,\u201d Gyori said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut he did not want to leave the party as long as his former wife was in power and after she resigned in the wake of the sex scandal, he used it as an opportunity to break from the party,\u201d Gyori added.<\/p>\n
The Facebook post and interviews with local media helped increase Magyar\u2019s domestic popularity. Earlier that month, he had told reporters in Hungary that he planned to establish a new, pro-EU political party.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe main reason Magyar became popular with people in Hungary in 2024 was because till then, there was this kind of hopelessness in the opposition. People felt that no opposition party\u00a0 would be capable of challenging Fidesz successfully. But when Peter came along amid the scandal, there was sudden hope,\u201d Gyori said.<\/p>\n
But it was only in April 2024 that Magyar decided to join the centre-right Tisza Party as a candidate in the 2024 European parliament elections and Hungary\u2019s national elections in 2026.<\/p>\n
He won a seat in the European parliament, representing the Tisza Party. On Sunday, his party won the Hungarian elections by a landslide, and he is projected to become the country\u2019s next prime minister.<\/p>\n
Zsuzsanna Vegh, a political analyst at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, told Al Jazeera that Magyar\u2019s victory in the parliamentary elections does away with a belief that Orb\u00e1n cannot be defeated.<\/p>\n
\u201cMagyar built something new from the bottom up and through his own commitment, gave voters not only a reason to hope but also to believe. He managed to unite an ideologically diverse coalition \u2013 not of parties, but of voters,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe did not outflank Fidesz by challenging him from the right and being more radical, but by focusing on policy responses, hitting a moderate tone and giving back agency to voters to decide about their and their country\u2019s future,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
Scandals involving Magyar<\/h2>\n
But Magyar\u2019s rise to power has also been marred by scandals, including his former wife, Varga, accusing him of domestic violence.<\/p>\n
Soon after Magyar posted her recording on Facebook in March 2024, she wrote on her own Facebook account: \u201cI said what he wanted to hear so I could get away as soon as possible. In a situation like this, any person can say things they don\u2019t mean in a state of intimidation.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cPeter Magyar made a secret recording of his former spouse, me, in our home and now used this to achieve his political goals. He is not worthy of anybody\u2019s trust,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
In February this year, he was accused of a sex scandal and drug use after photos of an apartment and a bed circulated on social media.<\/p>\n
While he admitted visiting the apartment, and said he was intimate with his former girlfriend with her consent, he rejected allegations that he consumed drugs and said his former girlfriend had lured him into a\u00a0 \u201choney trap\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat night I didn\u2019t realise that I was facing a secret service operation, so I let myself be seduced,\u201d Magyar said in a video on his social media platform on February 12.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut later I realised that I had walked into a classic Russia-style compromising situation. But since I had not done anything illegal, my conscience is clear,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He also accused Orban\u2019s party of targeting him on personal grounds.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Fidesz leaders know that I have my sons with me this week as our grassroots campaign starts next week. They wanted to ruin this period and to put me under even greater psychological pressure, so I made a mistake. They will not succeed,\u201d Magyar added.<\/p>\n
What will Magyar\u2019s policy positions be?<\/h2>\n
Magyar has vowed to revive Hungary\u2019s economy, which has been stagnant since early 2022.<\/p>\n
He has also pledged to improve relations with the European Union. Under Orban, ties between Brussels and Budapest were tense due to his close ties with Russia. Magyar said he would reduce Hungary\u2019s dependence on Russian energy by 2035, while striving for \u201cpragmatic relations\u201d with Moscow. He also said he would focus on getting the EU to release funds frozen by the union over Hungary\u2019s alleged failure to meet a series of the bloc\u2019s conditions for financial support.<\/p>\n
At the same time, Magyar has in the past been critical of Ukraine\u2019s push to join the EU imminently, arguing that this process should not be rushed \u2013 placing him at odds with Kyiv.<\/p>\n
Vegh said it is not clear what sort of leader Magyar will be but observed that he is seeking to distinguish himself by underlining his role as being of service to the public and the nation.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn doing so, he draws a clear line between Fidesz\u2019s self-enrichment and abuse of power, and his intended government of service,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
For many young Hungarians, Magyar\u2019s election represents a change that had appeared hard to imagine just a few months earlier.<\/p>\n
Zalan Varga, a Hungarian student based in France, told Al Jazeera that he believes Magyar has real potential to become a good leader of the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cHungarians have every reason to feel hopeful \u2013 especially after living their lives under the same [Orban] regime for 16 years, that was fuelled purely by hate and setting people against each other,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
But he noted that making the transition from an opposition leader to Hungary\u2019s governing politician will be where the real test begins for Magyar.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo lead a country as divided as Hungary, he will need to be genuinely open to criticism, especially from civil society and will have to treat them as valuable partners,\u201d Varga said.<\/p>\n
Izabella Nagy, a young professional in Budapest, told Al Jazeera that Magyar had \u201cignited a sense of hope for millions of Hungarians, both at home and in the diaspora\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have been following the recent political shifts closely. Peter Magyar\u2019s background within Fidesz gives him a unique, \u2018insider\u2019 understanding of how the current system operates, which is perhaps why he has been able to mobilise so effectively,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
But she noted that the hard work he has to do to improve the country is only just beginning.<\/p>\n
\u201cRebuilding a democracy and a fractured society is a far more gruelling task than the dismantling of one, which we have witnessed over the last decade,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile the path ahead is difficult, the enthusiasm of his team suggests they feel the weight of responsibility towards the millions of citizens who are now counting on them for genuine change,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Peter Magyar, once a staunch loyalist of Hungary\u2019s prime minister Viktor Orban, has ended his mentor\u2019s 16-year rule after his Tisza party won Sunday\u2019s parliamentary election by a landslide. With votes in 97.35 percent of precincts counted, Magyar\u2019s centre-right party has secured 138 seats in the 199-seat parliament and 53.6 percent of the vote. Orban\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18747,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-explained"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18746","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18746"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18746\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}