In this year’s Hungarian elections, Viktor Orbán is facing a formidable new force. Emerging from the Fidesz cadres in 2023, Péter Magyar launched his attack on Orbán. Since then, say Katinka Linnamäki and Emilia Palonen, Magyar has managed to avoid many of the pitfalls of polarisation that previously favoured Orbán
Hungary’s 2026 election campaign is Péter Magyar’s second major campaign in short succession. In the 2024 European Parliament election, he and his new party, Tisza, rose with striking speed. Tisza has become the country’s strongest opposition force. It has reshaped Hungary’s party landscape and is challenging the longstanding dominance of the governing Fidesz-KDNP alliance. It has also dealt a heavy blow to the parties previously in opposition.
Hungarian politics has been polarised for decades. Orbán’s first government, from 1998 to 2002, deepened divides between friends and families that persist to this day. Politics became a battle between left and right camps that each questioned the other’s right to govern. The system originally benefitted both left and right, pushing political actors to fight over legitimacy, not policy.
Fidesz presents its rivals as enemies of the Hungarian nation, which has made challenging Orbán difficult, yet Péter Magyar's Tisza has become the country's strongest opposition force
Fidesz presents its rivals not just as opponents but as enemies of the Hungarian nation. Over the years, these 'enemies' have included migrants, the European Union, George Soros and, more recently, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Fidesz portrays every opponent, inside or outside as anti-Hungarian. This has made challenging Orbán difficult for Hungary's opposition. So, why has Magyar enjoyed more success?
Péter Magyar was once part of the Fidesz elite. That gave him something rare: insider knowledge and public credibility. Disappointment at Fidesz has grown as ordinary people watch living standards fall, and welfare services erode. In February 2024, Magyar appeared in an interview on the YouTube channel of the opposition media outlet Partizán. When he criticised Fidesz and described the workings of its inner circle, Hungarians listened.
Magyar's interview quickly went viral, much like the leaked 2006 speech by former prime minister Ferenc Gyurcsány, in which he admitted his government had 'lied day and night'. In Hungary, anti-establishment rhetoric has often found fertile ground. Gyurcsány’s leaked speech shook Hungarian politics and exposed a deep crisis of trust in democracy. The scandal helped pave the way for Fidesz’s victory in 2010. Now, Magyar has a similar chance to challenge the system.
Magyar’s break with Fidesz happened in the wake of a child protection scandal. His ex-wife, former justice minister Judit Varga, and President Katalin Novák, both resigned after pardoning a man linked to a child sexual abuse cover-up. Many analysts saw the resignations as an attempt to contain the damage by sacrificing two of the few high-profile women in Fidesz leadership.
That scandal exposed a deeper problem. For years, Fidesz has used gender, sexuality and family values as political weapons. The government has presented itself as the defender of children, the traditional family and Christian-conservative order. This has pushed public debate into a culture war, largely on Fidesz's terms.
The scandal shattered the party's image. How could a government that appears so passionate about child protection fail children so badly? It also showed how quick the party was to blame women, even though men were central to the abuse and its cover-up. The case damaged the moral credibility of the governing elite.
In Hungary, almost any cultural issue can become explosive. Opposition figures operate on a minefield laid by the government.
For example, in 2025, Budapest Pride drew tens of thousands of people to support queer rights, despite fears they might be fined for demonstrating. Many, even politically conservative people, joined for the first time. The event ended up being about more than just sexuality. Instead, it was a public expression of widespread dissatisfaction with the government. The strong turnout persuaded the government to refrain from imposing its harshest measures.
How did Péter Magyar react? He did not make himself the public face of support for Pride. Instead, he shifted attention to the issue of child protection using the government’s own language but turning it toward the systemic failure of child protection in Hungary. The opposition criticised him. But politically, it worked.
Fidesz has long claimed to stand for family and children. Yet a child abuse scandal in 2024 suggests that Fidesz considers power first, principles second
In the 2026 elections, child abuse has become a key issue. New cases, some with links to figures close to Fidesz, have kept the scandal alive. This has made the government look deeply hypocritical. Fidesz has long claimed to stand for family and children. Now the party's actions suggest something else: power first, principles second.
Magyar has another advantage. He knows how Fidesz speaks, and he knows how to answer in the same political language.
His campaign keywords are the same around which Fidesz has for years built its political story: child protection, welfare, nation and war. Tisza now uses many of the same themes – but its message is turned against Fidesz.
Magyar does not reject the government’s language. He reworks it. He makes familiar terms point to new failures and new demands. As Matthew Bergman points out, this helps him reach voters who may dislike Orbán but do not identify with the other opposition parties.
Magyar knows how Fidesz speaks. He reworks their language to his own advantage to reach voters who may dislike Orbán, but do not identify with opposition parties
Hungary remains highly polarised. But Magyar has disrupted the old pattern. He has challenged key Fidesz claims, especially around family, without getting trapped in a culture-war script written by the government. He has also reshaped the post-socialist party system by offering a political home that draws support from both the left and the right.
This is not an ordinary election campaign. Backing Péter Magyar is a vote against the polarised system that Fidesz has helped entrench for decades. If Tisza wins, what will follow remains to be seen. Revolutionary glory through system change – rendszerváltás – is yet another term that Magyar has borrowed from Orbán.
