Kiskunhalas, Hungary — Hungarian opposition leader Peter Magyar says there will be an important election next week where he will face a pro-Russian Prime Minister viktor orban It would be a “referendum” on whether Hungary continues its turn towards Eastern autocracy, or can regain its place among the democratic societies of Europe.
Magyar, a one-time Orban ally, poses the most serious threat The Nationalist Prime Minister’s hold on power since taking power in 2010.
In an exclusive interview with The Associated Press, Magyar said the EU’s longest-serving leader has taken the country on a “180-degree turn” in recent years, while endangering its Western orientation. coitus till moscow.
Yet despite that drift, “Hungarians still see that Hungary’s peace and development is guaranteed by EU and NATO membership,” Magyar said. “I think this will really be a referendum on our country’s place in the world.”
Magyar spoke to the AP on Thursday after an election rally for his center-right Tisza party in Kiskunhalas, a small town of about 25,000 on Hungary’s southern Great Plain. it was one of hundreds He organized rallies in small and big settlements Across the country, as part of a campaign he visited six cities a day before the April 12 elections.
Orbán has achieved a Reputation as a staunch disruptor Due to his repeated veto on important decisions within the European Union. He has campaigned by warning about the myriad external threats that are endangering Hungarians – the war in Ukraine, the coalition of EU bureaucrats and financial elites against Hungary, and an immigration crisis on the horizon.
Magyar, who is leading in most polls, has focused on issues that affect voters’ everyday lives, such as Hungary’s faltering state health care and public transportation sectors and what he describes as rampant government corruption.
At each of his rallies, he accuses Orbán and his nationalist-populist Fidesz party of making Hungary the “poorest and most corrupt” country in the EU – and portrays a “peaceful, humane and working” country as being within reach.
Yet alongside that domestic message, Magyar has portrayed Orbán’s rapprochement with the EU and his leanings toward Russia as matters of vital importance to the country’s future.
He said, “I think Tisza will have a massive electoral victory, because Fidesz voters also do not want our country to become a Russian puppet state, a colony, an assembly plant, instead of belonging to Europe.”
The tremendous growth of Magyar and his party surprised many Hungarians. For nearly a decade and a half, a broad group of fragmented opposition parties tried and failed to pose a serious threat to Orbán’s hold on power.
While opposition politicians often criticized Orbán during debates in parliament, he rarely made efforts to win over his support base in the countryside. disappointed after one series of bitter lossesMany opposition voters descended into political apathy.
Magyar, a 45-year-old lawyer and former Fidesz insider, was previously married to an Orbán ally who served as Hungary’s justice minister. After working for several years as a diplomat in Brussels, he returned to Hungary and took positions in state institutions, becoming familiar with the workings of Orbán’s system.
But then, in view of a political scam In 2024, after the president granted amnesty to an accomplice in a child sex abuse case, Magyar publicly broke with Orbán’s party and accused him of overseeing corruption and the capture of Hungary’s institutions.
He soon founded the centre-right Tisza Party – named after Hungary’s second largest river – only four months after Magyar entered electoral politics. won 30% votes In the European Parliament elections.
As the popularity of the Tisza grew, a chant heard at its rallies became the motto of its rise: “The Tisza is flooding.”
While Magyar has worked to dismantle Orbán’s autocratic system in the election, he has promised to keep some of the prime minister’s policies positive, such as a fence along the southern border to keep out migrants and a popular utility cut program.
Still, his party – a member of the European Parliament’s largest, centre-right group – stands apart from the constellation of far-right political movements in Europe and beyond and sees Orbán as a shining example of nationalist populism in action.
In a sign of praise for Orbán, the Vice President, of US President Donald Trump and his MAGA movement JD Vance set to visit Budapest Tuesday in support of his re-election.
Many EU leaders are keeping an eye on the Hungarian elections with the hope that Orban will lose.
His repeated vetoing – including recently Blocking a major, 90-billion-euro ($104-billion) EU loan As for Ukraine – often done to appease his Euroskeptic base, Magyar said, “the veto is just for the sake of vetoing so he can say at home that he is vetoing.”
The prime minister’s conduct has renewed calls to reform the bloc’s fundamental treaties by reducing the number of decisions requiring consensus within the EU – as a way to buttress support against the paralysis caused by intolerant member states.
Magyar said that under a Tisza government, European leaders can hope for a “constructive position”, but that he is “critical and ready for debate. We want to be there at the table.”
Despite Orbán exploiting EU unanimity rules, the ability to veto important decisions is a “legitimate option”, he added: “I think European leaders don’t have a problem with that, they have a problem with the unnecessary trouble-shooting role.”
He said, “The task of the Prime Minister of Hungary at any time is to represent the interests of Hungary, and if necessary, to represent them vigorously.” “No matter what it costs.”
Orban has confounded, and even angered, almost every other EU leader with his conciliatory approach to Russia and closeness to President Vladimir Putin. Some EU officials and many of his opponents domestically have accused him of renouncing one’s commitments to the faction From Moscow.
After this, almost every EU country cut off the supply of Russian fossil fuels. full scale invasion of ukraine Hungary joins Slovakia to retain it in February 2022 Even the supply was increased – Outraged by many countries who accused him of helping finance the war.
While Magyar has condemned Hungary’s leanings toward Moscow, as well as reports that Russian secret services are interfering in the election in Orbán’s favor, he said his future government would take a “pragmatic” approach toward Russia.
“Pragmatism means that we have no say in Russia’s internal affairs and they have no say in our affairs either,” he said. “We are both sovereign countries and we respect each other, but we don’t have to like each other.”
Magyar has criticized Orbán’s government for failing to diversify its energy mix, and has advocated reaching new agreements and building new infrastructure to bring oil and gas from other sources to landlocked Hungary.
Nevertheless, he added, “This does not mean that we should stop using Russian oil tomorrow. It means that the EU’s resources should be used well.”
