I'm Fanny Facsar and I'm here in Hungary's capital, Budapest, to interview a big political player. Not Viktor Orbán, but the man who wants to replace him and who may have a fighting chance of doing so. I'm here to meet Péter Magyar. He seems interesting. His family includes a former Hungarian president and a judge, and he was married to the former justice minister. Magyar himself was a government insider under Prime Minister Orbán, but he walked away from the ruling Fidesz party and all state-financed jobs in protest over a corruption scandal. Now he's the head of the opposition Tisza party, and many polls give it a lead over the ruling Fidesz. And the next elections are in 2026, so could Magyar unseat Orbán and become the next Prime Minister? And if he did that, what would he do with that? He portrays himself as a clear alternative to Viktor Orbán, but what would that mean to people here in Hungary, and how would he position this country on the international stage? Let's go and ask him.
Mr. Magyar, your party, Tisza, is leading in most polls in Hungary right now. That is unprecedented since Viktor Orbán has been elected in 2010. What do you think is the appeal of the Tisza party and you as a politician right now to Hungarians? What's been triggered?
This party, the Freedom and Respect Party, the TISZA in Hungarian, is much more than me. It's much more than 1,500 TISZA islands. Much more than our volunteers. It's rather a movement. The movement of the vast majority of the Hungarian people against corruption, lies, propaganda, autocracy. So the vast majority of the Hungarian people want to have a new Hungary in a very short time. But there are hundreds of secrets, I think. So the very bad situation of the Hungarian economy, the cost of living crisis caused by the Orbán government, the two times, two and a half times higher inflation in Hungary than the EU average, and the condition, the very poor condition of the Hungarian state health care system and also the education system. Maybe the lack of the EU funds, which are crucial, which would be crucial for the Hungarian economy. So they are all together the secrets.
Viktor Orbán and his Fidesz party, as well as a lot of his supporters, would describe you rather as a "threat to Hungary's freedom and sovereignty." Why?
They do the same with all the opposition parties from the very beginning, at least from 2010. They always need some figures like Soros, George Soros, or Brussels, or the president of the European Commission, or the chairman of the European People's Party, somebody to fight against. And this is the same story again. We are attacked and we are somehow blackmailed and attacked as a foreign agent of Brussels or I don't know whom. They want to distract the attention from the state of play in Hungary.
How do you want to be seen?
Completely the opposite. Like Orbán, we don't need any enemy. One of our main aims is to reunite the nation, to stop the propaganda, to stop the hate speech, and to speak about the reality, about the conditions, about the state of play of our country. Otherwise we won't be able to restart the Hungarian economy, to rebuild the nation, to bring back or to bring home the EU funds. We should speak about the reality. We should find national minimums, at least 10 or 15, not to be questioned by anybody in the political area. So our main goal is after winning the election. The general election will be held normally next spring, 2026, but we will see. There are rumors about an early election in autumn, maybe in October. And the first step will be for the next Hungarian prime minister is to join the European Public Prosecutor's Office to stop the corruption and to fly to Brussels and to negotiate with the European Commission, with all the institutions, and to defreeze the EU funds.
Is there anything you would like to adapt from Fidesz party's policies? It's going back all the way to 1998 when Prime Minister Viktor Orbán was elected for the first time, but was described as a centre-right party before it slowly but surely drifted towards the populist far right.
We can keep the child and family support system, but of course we should somehow change and make it better and more supportive for the younger women. And we should keep the southern border fence against illegal migration. We should keep several things, of course. They have had the chance for governing this beautiful, our beloved country for 15 years now and four years before. So of course they have made good decisions as well, and we will keep them. All of the good decisions will be made, and we will have new ones as well, of course.
You mentioned there are some rumors allegedly that there may be an early election, maybe September, October, who knows. My question to you: Fidesz has a rather strong local network built up over the years. How do you recruit enough people to be ready if there is an early election? Where do things stand right now on an operational level for TISZA?
Yeah, it's a good question, but to be honest, we are very strong in the countryside as well. I made personally many, many rallies. I had the chance to visit at least 190 municipalities for six weeks in last spring, and we continue this rally in autumn, and we will do it next week further. And that's our only chance. And that's why we are doing our best to reach everybody, to reach out all the municipalities in Hungary.
How big is this challenge in the light of the fact that a huge part of the media sector is under government control or controlled by people affiliated with the government? Basically, how do you reach people with your message, the ones who don't turn out to see you in these rural communities? What's the challenge here?
There are huge problems with the media freedom in Hungary. I can tell you what we have is only my personal Facebook page and maybe the Instagram and YouTube and TikTok. But I started with the Facebook page. Nowadays, I have more or less 500,000 followers on Facebook, and this is our biggest tool to reach in the online era the people. But as I mentioned, my only chance is to go there directly to the people, not only me, but my colleagues. We have seven MEPs in the European Parliament, ten in the Assembly of Budapest, ten MPs. So, and of course, we are now recruiting the new candidates. So day by day we are more and more, and our main saying is "step by step and brick by brick." And we use this saying also in building the party and reaching the people. That's it.
Are you prepared for possible infiltration?
Of course, you can't be prepared 100 percent. But we are doing our best, and of course, this is an open candidacy, so it's also a new phenomenon to recruit candidates on a webpage and to make it public and available for everybody. Of course, we should make background checks, et cetera. And we should work together. We will work together with the possible candidates. And we will check them, how they are able to work together, how they are able to convince the people, whether they know enough the conditions in this constituency. And we will do our best. So there are no secrets in the politics. And we will not make any background deals behind closed doors as the old opposition and the government.
When you go on your nationwide tour that you've done already last year, and you see all these people, what do you think? Who is your target? Is it the undecided voters, or can you even think about wanting to convince the core Fidesz voter, or is that illusional?
Actually everybody. So we don't have now enough time and energy to speak about ideologies. Of course I have a right-wing background, but we are waiting everybody, and I can promise to the Hungarians that we will represent everybody. We don't care whether you are a Fidesz voter or an opposition voter or an undecided voter. But that's true that in the EP elections we've got several votes from the undecided voters and from the voters who maybe didn't vote for decades. And the youngers. This is the first time in Hungary that the majority of the younger generations are interested in politics, in public affairs. And I think it's a very good sign. Finally, we are there. Because, you know, the change and the spring and the younger generations, I think, are unstoppable. And they are our biggest boosters and energy. Because they are ready to do everything for freedom, for the freedom and for a free and democratic and European and livable Hungary.
