Who Is
Peter Magyar, the Man Who Toppled Viktor Orban?
Mr.
Magyar’s success in the Hungarian election is fueled in large part by
widespread public anger at corruption and concern about sluggish economic
growth.
Aurelien
Breeden
By
Aurelien Breeden
April 12,
2026
The party
of Peter Magyar, 45, a conservative politician and a lawmaker in the European
Parliament, delivered a stunning blow in Sunday’s election in Hungary,
dethroning the longtime prime minister, Viktor Orban.
Mr.
Magyar, who studied law, was a little-known member of Mr. Orban’s Fidesz party
for more than two decades, serving as a diplomat in Brussels and holding senior
positions in state agencies. He was married to Judit Varga, a leading Fidesz
figure, until 2023.
Mr.
Magyar rose to prominence in 2024 after he broke with Mr. Orban over a
political scandal set off by revelations that a man convicted of covering up
sexual abuse at a children’s home had been pardoned. That year, Mr. Magyar
created Tisza, an upstart political movement that went on to win 30 percent of
the vote in Hungary during the European Parliament elections.
In the
parliamentary election in Hungary on Sunday, with 66 percent of votes counted,
the party was on course to win 137 seats, more than a two-thirds majority.
His
campaign was fueled in large part by widespread public anger about corruption,
particularly the misuse of billions of euros in E.U. funding, and concern about
Hungary’s sluggish economic growth. He promised to improve relations with the
European Union, which has held up development funds for Hungary amid assertions
that Mr. Orban has undermined democratic institutions.
Mr.
Magyar also focused on living standards and issues like Hungary’s dilapidated
health care system. But he steered clear of issues like L.G.B.T.Q. rights and
stayed silent on a ban on the Budapest Pride parade last year. And while he
criticized Mr. Orban’s tilt toward Russia by emphasizing Moscow’s long history
of bullying Hungary, he avoided talking about the war in Ukraine.
Mr.
Magyar was not Mr. Orban’s first right-wing challenger.
In the
2022 general election, Mr. Orban’s fractious opponents rallied behind Peter
Marki-Zay, a conservative, churchgoing, small-town mayor with seven children.
The effort flopped, ending in a landslide victory for Fidesz after the
governing party deployed its media machine to portray Mr. Marki-Zay as a
warmonger intent on sending Hungarians to fight against Russia in Ukraine.
Aurelien
Breeden is a reporter for The Times in Paris, covering news from France.
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