Forty years ago, Freddie Mercury sang the song “Tavaszi Szél Vizet Árasht” (Spring Wind Brings Water) on the filled Nepsstadion in Budapest. And this recording is considered 1 of the iconic moments in Hungarian history(*).
It would seem that nothing could further strengthen the cult position of this song. But now it has all chance to become a symbol of seismic change on the Hungarian political scene. “Tavaszi szél” was sung by participants of hundreds of Péter Magyar electoral rallies across the country over the last 2 years.
Magyar supporters frequently compare their idol to the spring wind, which will dispel the rotting fog from above the swamp, into which Hungarian politics have turned during 16 years of regulation by Viktor Orbán and his Fidesz party. Skeptics talk of the blind fanaticism of the “Madzar sect” and call it a novice and dandy, a thin Jesus, and at best a younger, more refined version of the current Hungarian leader.
Shortly after the closing of the polling stations in the Hungarian parliamentary elections, it became clear that the “Tisha” organization of Hungary was far ahead of “Fidesz” Orbán. Orbán himself admitted defeat and congratulated his opponent just 2 hours after the vote ended.
An Elite Childhood
Péter Magyar – by the way, his name means “Hungarian” in Hungarian – was born on 16 March 1981 in Budapest in a household that could be called part of the Hungarian elite.
Magyar's grandpa was Eres Pál, justice of the Hungarian ultimate Court and prominent media figure in the country in the 1970s and 1980s. Pál was a tv star, leading a popular "Court Affairs" program, aired over the years on state television. Pála's analyses of actual court cases then became part of popular culture; he was recognized on the street and considered 1 of the most influential lawyers in the country.
Péter Magyar's godfather was his grandmother's brother, Ferenc Mádl, prof. of law at the University of Budapest. He later joined the Fidesz organization and served as president of Hungary from 2000 to 2005.
Magyar's parents were besides lawyers. No wonder Péter himself studied law at the university.
But before that, Magyar graduated from an elite Catholic school of drunkards in central Budapest. It was here, as he later mentioned in an interview with BBC correspondent Nick Thorpe, that he first met Viktor Orbán.
In 1996 or 1997, the leader of the flourishing Fidesz organization visited the school of Hungary and spoke to the students. Péter himself was able to even ask Orbán why he, who late referred to as a liberal policy, clearly moved "to the law". Orbán then replied with Churchill's words: it is average that you have leftist political views in your youth and become a Conservative in your adult life. Orbán's consequence convinced young Madyar.
Being already at Catholic University. Pázmány Péter, Madyar, along with his then companion Gergely Gulyás, were so upset by Orbán's defeat in the 2002 parliamentary election that they joined his Fidesz organization jointly.
Today, Gergley Gullyás is Viktor Orbán's chief of staff and is considered 1 of the most powerful people in the country. He has no contact with Madyar.
In 2005, at a organization organized by a young prof. Gulyás, Péter Magyar met 25-year-old Judit Varga, a postgraduate of the law of the University of Miskolec, taking an internship at a company in Budapest. They married the following year and in 2009 the couple moved to Brussels: Varga took the position of assistant Hungarian MP János Áder. In 2012, Áder was elected president of Hungary, but Varga remained in Brussels, working in the offices of another Members of the European Parliament from his country. Magyar initially stayed on maternity leave and then worked on insignificant posts in the Hungarian Ministry of abroad Affairs and its EU Delegate.
Péter and Judit
Magyar observed from Brussels stunning changes in Hungarian politics – Viktor Orbán's return to power in 2010, his amendments to the Constitution in 2011 and the beginning of the process of moving distant from democracy. He later recalled how positively he perceived the centralization of power and the tightening of the screw by Orbán: after 8 years of leftist-liberal coalition regulation and a devastating blow to the Hungarian economy as a consequence of the 2008 crisis, the country needed a strong hand. Realizing that Orbán actually takes over individual control of the country came much later.
Péter Magyar and his household – he and Judit Varga had 3 sons at the time – returned to Budapest in 2018 erstwhile Varga was offered the position of Secretary of State for the European Union in Viktor Orbán's administration. The following year Magyar's wife advanced: she was appointed Minister of Justice and her duties continued to include Hungarian relations with the EU. any observers suggested that Varga belonged to a narrow ellipse of leading Fidesz officials who could be considered as possible successors to Viktor Orbán.
At the time, Péter Magyar held crucial positions in various government and government-related institutions: he headed the EU law department at the state bank and was president of the Student Credit Center.
According to Politico, Magyar repeatedly tried to gain higher government positions, but unsuccessfully.
"He was always rejected due to the fact that he was besides ambitious and independent," quoted Miklós Szükesd, a political scientist from the University of Copenhagen who studied the Magyar phenomenon. "His ambitions were suppressed, and this imbalance caused frustration".
In March 2023, Péter Magyar and Judit Varga announced their divorce. “Our matrimony was strained on both sides,” he later said in an interview with “Guardian”.
Breakthrough Interview
Around the same time, in April 2023, president Katalin Novák signed a decree pardoning Endre Konya, erstwhile deputy manager of the orphanage in Bicske. He and his boss were sentenced to prison 2 years earlier: the manager of the Konya orphanage for pedophilia for attempting to cover up crimes and exert force on victims.
The news of the pardon came to light in early February 2024 and shocked not only Orbán's opponents, but besides many supporters of his Fidesz party, a right-wing, conservative force professing conventional values. Initially, the government attempted to cover up the scandal, but after a series of critical media reports and protest before the Novák Presidential Palace announced her resignation live on television. Judit Varga besides immediately announced her withdrawal from politics: in 2023 she countersigned a presidential decree pardoning Konya, formally participating in that decision.
Less than an hr and a half after the announcement of Novák's resignation, Péter Magyar, who had previously seldom published, published an announcement on his Facebook page about resigning from positions in state companies for "non-professional reasons".
"I don't want to be part of a strategy where real leaders hide behind women's skirts even for a moment... For a long time, I have believed in the thought of a national, sovereign, civilian Hungary <...>, but present I had to yet realize that all of this is truly just a beautiful extortion that serves 2 purposes: to hide the mechanisms governing the device and to guarantee the accumulation of colossal fortunes," the entry states.
The following day Péter Magyar visited the studio of the independent Partizan channel on YouTube. Almost two-hour interview turned him from Fidesz's 3rd league policy into a national hero, embodying the shy search by Hungarian society of fresh leaders who would stand out from among the members of the "old opposition", plunged into a deep ideological crisis.
‘Work for the good of the country”
The movie rapidly reached 2 million views – a fantastic consequence for Hungary, a country with 10 million inhabitants.
No circumstantial accusations were made in the interview: Rather, Magyar spoke of the cruelty and corruption of the Hungarian power strategy itself. However, this was already a sensation in a country where opponents or, at best, independent media frequently discussed strategy sins. Magyar sounded little like a revolutionary and more like a disappointed insider – a man who knows how the Hungarian strategy of power works, how politics intertwine with safety and business services, and who can no longer live in these warped frameworks. In short, the interview sparked a sensation.
"The first 2 weeks [after this interview] were terrible due to the fact that I lost everything, I just interrupted everything in my life... It was a very negative time. But it only lasted 2 weeks. Then another communicative began," Magyar recalled.
On 15 March that year, erstwhile Hungary celebrated Freedom Day, it became a “general test” for Magyar. Magyar called on his fellow countrymen to assemble that day on 1 of the central streets of Budapest.
"It is estimated that around 30,000 people have gathered – more than any opposition organization has managed to gather in 1 place in fresh years" – described the scale of the event by an independent Telex diary that Magyar himself did not expect.
At this rally Magyar announced his intention to form his own political party, which could be joined by “all Hungarians of good will who want to work for the good of their country”.
Accusations of Abuse
But even before the promise was fulfilled, in late March 2024, Péter Magyar published a recording of a conversation in the kitchen he had with his wife in January 2023, 2 months before his divorce with Judit Varga.
In Varg's interview, which was not told about recording, he tells his husband about how the prosecution “purified” confidential papers in a serious corruption case. At the time, the Minister of Justice openly acknowledged that the Hungarian government had become a mafia strategy that could not be escaped from.
In a documentary shot much later, Magyar stated that he recorded this recording in 2023 as a form of safety in case he and Varga fell into disfavor of the regime, reported Politico.
The recording provided additional evidence to Orbán's opponents to support their claim that his strategy of government was fundamentally flawed: serious abuses were known at the top, but nothing was done about them and nothing could be done about them.
Immediately after the release of Judit Varga's recording, she claimed that her ex-husband blackmailed her by making their conversation public for a year.
"Now he utilized [the recording] to accomplish his own political goals. specified a individual does not deserve to be trusted... This was done by the man to whom I gave birth to 3 sons... whom I gave with love and hope countless opportunities for a fresh beginning during these terrible years of force in their relations," she wrote on Facebook.
Varga's accusations of physical force on the part of his ex-husband were picked up by the pro-government press. Orbán's main propaganda organ, ‘Magyar Nemzet’, devoted a comprehensive article entitled ‘The Snotter’ to Magyar, calling him, among another things, a ‘zero without a stick’ that achieved everything in life thanks to his wife, who yet dumped him.
Three days after the outbreak of the Péter Magyar scandal, he responded to Varga's accusations. In a Facebook post, he did not deny that their 18-year relation had passed through various periods, but wrote, “I never raised my hand on the parent of my children, and she raised her hand on me repeatedly, both with her fist and her leg, sometimes in the presence of witnesses, sometimes behind closed doors.” Magyar besides spoke of a run of slander that the authorities started against him.
In any case, the full situation gave the authorities an chance to push the media sound around Magyar into the tabloids.
In consequence to the question of the attitude towards Magyar, Viktor Orbán replied: "I am in charge of the government of the state, not the telenovelas."
And in general, in the spring of 2024 it seemed that the Hungarian authorities had taken a strategical decision to ignore this "novice", hoping that its popularity would fall as rapidly and unexpectedly as its increasing fame.
"One of Fidesz's many-year-old insiders described Magyar's word at the centre of public attention as a “three-day scandal”, The Guardian wrote at the time.
The beginnings of ‘TIME’
Meanwhile, Péter Magyar, as promised, founded his own party. Observers in Budapest mention that he initially considered creating political strength from scratch. However, the deadline worked against this scenario: elections to the European Parliament were scheduled for early June 2024. Magyar, rapidly gaining popularity, planned to participate in them, but at the time had no physical capability to make a full-fledged party.
As a result, Péter Magyar announced in early April 2024 that he and his supporters would be moving for parliament for the “Rate and Freedom” organization (Hungarian acronym: TISZA), a marginal political force registered 4 years earlier and named by the Hungarian media “Party of Tisza”. It was founded by a group of older friends from the hotel Eger, and before Magyar joined her ranks, and the full operation of the TISZA organization was to travel her leaders around the country in a van decorated with Hungarian flags and print amateur films from her travels on YouTube.
Magyar told reporters that he had negotiated with respective parties, and the crucial origin behind TISHA was its name, which, as he said, has "positive and joyful connotations in Hungarian culture and history".
For Hungarians, Tisza is more than just a river; it is simply a systemic waterway of their states, an component of national identity, specified as Dniepr for Ukrainians or Vistula for Poles. Given that after 1920 any of the erstwhile Hungarian lands through which Tisza flows were outside the borders of the modern state, the river became a symbol of memory and nostalgia for the lost past.
In any case, a fewer days after taking office in the TISZA party, Magyar announced the start of staff selection and an extended election journey across the country.
First elections
When observers in Budapest talk about the main origin of Magyar's success, they naturally mention the banal fatigue of Hungarian society for the long years of Viktor Orban's rule.
Only a fewer years ago, Orbán was a veteran of public administration according to European standards, but the opposition was incapable to argue him.
According to Hungarian experts, Magyar stands out for his hard work and perseverance. The main component of his electoral campaign, both before the current parliamentary elections and before the European Parliament elections in 2024, were the long tour of cities and villages, during which Magyar could hold four, 5 or even six meetings with voters a day.
In the case of Magyar, it wasn't just about demonstrating closeness with average people. The fact is that Viktor Orbán was considered the political leader of the vast majority of Hungarian provinces, and Magyar and his allies initially were not certain whether the residents of the tiny towns and villages would always appear at a gathering with a man who called himself an opponent of the current Prime Minister.
"And here we are going to Gyula (a town with about 30,000 inhabitants – BBC). It was expected to be the first performance on our tour, and abruptly a friend calls me: You will not believe, about a 1000 people gathered at the castle. It was a wonderful feeling, I tell you," Magyar later told BBC writer Nick Thorpe.
An integral part of these rallies were Magyar's speech, answers to spontaneous audience questions and mandatory photograph sessions. "I think I am the individual with the most selfie in Hungary's history," said the politician in the same interview. And the compulsory song “Spring Wind” which he and hundreds of his supporters performed at all rally.
The run of a completely marginal party, led almost alone for almost 2 months by an unknown politician only a fewer months ago, was an amazing success. In the June elections, TISZA won almost 30% of the vote and introduced 7 representatives to the European Parliament, headed by Péter Magyar himself.
It was already clear at that time that the next halt of TISHA would be the parliamentary elections in 2026 and Magyar's goal would be the Prime Minister's position.
New Campaign
TISHI leader started a fresh election run last year. He held respective meetings a day, sometimes in distant places where councillors, let alone Euro MPs, could not always scope them.
And one more time Hungary's asset was its clearly constructed speeches, focusing on economic, social and infrastructure issues – issues where Viktor Orbán had small success. He placed peculiar emphasis on combating corruption, especially as fresh journalistic investigations have given Magyar a broad field of attack against the current Prime Minister. In general only – about the abroad policy on which Viktor Orbán built his campaign.
The views of TISH for the future of the country are summarised in the awesome 240-page electoral programme entitled ‘The basis of functional and humanitarian Hungary’. The supporters of Magyar call it a comprehensive strategy that answers virtually all question about the policy of the future government; opponents gag that specified a comprehensive and obscure paper could only have been created through artificial intelligence.
Nevertheless, it is somewhat paradoxical that the individual with the best chance of defeating Orbán – a conservative, nationalist and ideological ally of Donald Trump – was not an ideological opponent of the current Hungarian leader, but a associate of his own party, a supporter of far-right political views. Magyar advocates a strict immigration policy or speaks very carefully about LGBT rights. In short, it is ideologically positioned as a follower of the actual Fidesz value, to which it joined in 2002, not as Viktor Orbán converted it.
In the current elections Magyar set up a squad composed mainly of large business people – they are expected to be the backbone of the future technocratic government of Hungary.
Since the media is dominant in the conventional media landscape, Magyar and his supporters fought with the authorities on social media. According to our Budapest interviewers, they won this conflict with Orbán's crew.
But, of course, the most crucial origin in Magyar's success is the hope of change that hundreds of thousands of his countrymen feed. Hence the focus of supporters of various ideologies and beliefs around him, frequently agreeing only that it is essential to change the leader and then, as they say, we will manage ourselves.
Hence an unprecedented network in the political past of the country "TISHI Island" – local volunteer cells that support Hungary's run in the regions.
Of course, a separate question is how real it is to implement the fundamental changes that Hungary has promised in all spheres of life. Viktor Orbán, in his 16 years of power, virtually concreteized the Hungarian political system, and in order to begin its dismantling, a constitutional majority of two-thirds of MPs is required.
Similarly, the question remains whether Kiev's hopes for the exit of Ukrainian-Hungarian relations from the current deep crisis after Péter Magyar's come to power will be fulfilled. On the 1 hand, the Budapest experts with whom we spoke say that Prime Minister Magyar will focus on abroad policy, repairing Budapest's seriously damaged relations with Brussels and restoring Hungary to the European political mainstream, which is now characterised by the maximum support for Ukraine. It is not insignificant that Magyar visited Ukraine in 2024, shortly after the Russian attack on the Children's infirmary "Ochmatdet", and even met with its director. He besides visited Bucza and the monument of the fallen defenders of Ukraine.
On the another hand, Hungarian society is presently overheated with anti-Ukrainian propaganda, which Viktor Orbán has made the cornerstone of his campaign, and Péter Magyar will inevitably gotta take this into account.
"When asked if Hungary under the leadership of Magyar would quit a veto on a 90-billion-dollar EU debt (for Ukraine), a origin acquainted with TISZA's position replied that it would yet depend on the public," Politico late wrote.
"We cannot marry him."
Another feature of Péter Magyar, noted by observers in and outside Budapest, is his "teflon" nature. No prosecution by the authorities, no possibly scandalous situation in which he would have been forced or put into himself, affects his listing or political harm.
"The authorities call him a traitor to the family, party, homeland, but he does not care," says 1 of our sources.
The authorities even attempted criminal proceedings against him. In June 2024, shortly after the winning elections to the European Parliament, Magyar – seemingly drunk – snatched the telephone from a man who tried to movie him dancing in a Budapest nightclub, and threw him into the Danube.
The Hungarian lawyer General then initiated proceedings against Magyar, and the politician himself stated that law enforcement authorities should have investigated cases of corruption involving public officials so rapidly and persistently. Ultimately, the European Parliament refused to deprive Magyar of parliamentary immunity, and the possible case against him failed.
Apparently, the authorities' attempts to "get" Magyar continued even after this incident. In February of that year, he warned his supporters that the authorities were preparing against him "a slanderous operation like a Russian one" – the publication of a "intimate moment" between Magyar and his erstwhile girlfriend.
"Yes, I am a 45-year-old man and I have sex life," he wrote on social media.
However, the movie “pronounced” by Magyar never materialized.
Magyar, however, met with large criticism, not only from Orbán's camp.
One of Magyar's erstwhile employees calls him stubborn. Péter Marky-Zay, Mayor of Hódmezérvásárhely, who unsuccessfully led the united opposition in the 2022 parliamentary election, describes him as arrogant and egotistic.
The entrepreneur Dezsé Farkas, a erstwhile associate of Magyar, who, along with him, began building the TISZA organization and then stepped down, complained to Politico that the startup culture in which his squad started is degenerating into a toxic atmosphere, increasingly resembling Fidesz, from which Magyar emerged.
Finally, observers already note that Magyar is highly selective in dealing with media, prohibiting all members of his squad from giving interviews – only a fewer are allowed to give short comments to journalists.
On the another hand, "we don't gotta marry him," said Péter Marki-Zay in an interview with Politico. "We just request individual to leave Orbán in the past," he concluded.
for: Принесенный ветром. Кто такой Петер, победивший Виктора Орбана
Music Appendix:
Hungarians, as well as another nations, were repeatedly “baked” with music:
But it has happened in the past of Europe:
(choice, title, footnote, musical additions and crowd. PZ)
