Culture Society, Identity and Belonging
Viktor Orbán has faced multiple challengers during his 14-year reign as Hungary’s nationalist leader, but a new threat to his power comes not from the left but from an anti-corruption campaigner apprenticed in his own party. Peter Magyar abandoned Orban’s Fidesz this year while exposing its “mafia state” control of media and state contracts. He has since built a centrist platform campaigning against corruption, although he supports Orbán’s position on Ukraine, opposing sending troops or weapons to help Kyiv. So far things are going well. Magyar’s party, TISZA, gained 30 per cent of the vote in its first European elections this month and joined the parliament’s largest coalition, the EPP. TISZA’s success ended Fidesz’s absolute majority of Hungarian MEPs for the first time since 2010. Magyar’s focus is singular. He’s said he will leave his seat in Brussels if it interferes with his campaign to remove Orbán from power in the 2026 Hungarian elections.
