The Hungarian parliament has elected a new prime minister. 7 facts about Magyar

Peter Magyar, the leader of the Tisa party, which won the parliamentary elections in Hungary, is a controversial figure. Despite the fact that Brussels supported his candidacy, seeing in him a pro-European politician, even in the Hungarian opposition environment, the attitude towards the winner of the election remains cautious. What is known about Peter Magyar is in the Izvestia article.

Fact 1. A native of the elite

Peter Magyar is a descendant of a famous Hungarian legal dynasty. His grandfather, Eresh Pal, is a judge of the Hungarian Supreme Court and a TV star, the host of the popular program "Legal Affairs" in the 1970s and 1980s. Pal was considered one of the most influential lawyers in the country.

• Magyar's godfather, his grandmother's brother Ferenc Madl, twice ran for president of Hungary from the Fidesz party and led the country in 2000-2005. Magyar's parents are Istvan Magyar, a well—known Hungarian lawyer, and Monica Ehres, a judge who has served as Secretary General of the Supreme Court and Deputy Chairman of the National Judicial Administration.

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Fact 2. The person from the system

• Peter Magyar is a moderate conservative and former functionary of the Fidesz party, which became his main opponent in the April 12 elections. Magyar met Fidesz leader Viktor Orban when he was still a schoolboy, when he came to speak to students of an elite Catholic public relations school.

• Already while studying at Peter Pazman Catholic University, where Magyar studied law, he joined the Fidesz party together with comrade Gergei Gulyash. Due to the fact that Magyar had been a member of the party for a long time and knew the system from the inside, he became the strongest opponent for Fidesz in the elections.

Fact 3. Couldn't compete with his wife's success

Magyar met Judith Varga, a 25-year-old graduate of the Law faculty of Miskolc University, in 2005 at a party hosted by Gergei Gulyash, who later became Viktor Orban's chief of staff. A year later, Magyar and Varga got married. But Judith's career turned out to be brighter than her husband's.

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• In 2009, Varga became an assistant to MEP Janos Ader and the couple moved to Brussels. While his wife was pursuing a career in politics, Magyar was on maternity leave with children and worked in modest positions at the Hungarian Foreign Ministry. After returning to Budapest in 2019, Varga became Minister of Justice, she was called a possible successor to Orban, and Magyar unsuccessfully sought higher political positions during this period.

It is believed that it was his marriage to Judith Varga, who moved in the highest echelons of power, that opened the way for him into big politics. This union provided him with access to the internal processes of governing the country: he oversaw high-level decision-making and was in an environment where government policy was being shaped.

Fact 4. He was accused of violence

• The marriage of Magyar and Varga was considered exemplary, but in March 2023, the couple announced their divorce. Judith Varga later accused her ex-husband of refusing to let her go, using violence, blackmail and bullying against her. Magyar denied these claims and accused his ex-wife of violence.

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• As a member of the European Parliament from the Tisa party in 2024, Magyar came into conflict in a nightclub with a man who was filming him on a mobile phone. The deputy took the gadget from his opponent and threw it into the Danube. The government press wrote that Magyar behaved aggressively and molested women, and the politician himself stated that the person with whom he was in conflict was a provocateur from Fidesz. Despite the accusations, the European Parliament did not deprive the Magyar of parliamentary immunity.

Fact 5. He made PR for his party on the scandal

• In early 2024, Magyar resigned from Fidesz amid a major scandal over President Katalin Novak's pardon of Endre Konyi, former deputy director of an orphanage in Biche, who had concealed cases of child abuse. Novak was a creature of the Fidesz party, and Magyar's ex—wife, as Minister of Justice, agreed on this pardon - after the scandal, Varga resigned, and Magyar left the party and accused Fidesz of corruption.

• In January 2023, two months before his divorce from Varga, Magyar secretly recorded his wife's story about how the prosecutor's office had "cleaned up" documents on a corruption case. The politician claimed that this record should become "insurance" for him and his wife, but, according to Varga, he blackmailed her with this record throughout the year. Already as leader of the Tisa party, Magyar published a record: thanks to the scandal, the party gained 29.6% in June 2024, and Magyar himself entered the European Parliament.

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Fact 6. Won over the voters in record time

• After leaving Fidesz, Magyar began to build a political career almost from scratch. He relied on personal recognition and direct communication with voters, actively using social networks. During the election campaign, Magyar traveled hundreds of kilometers, organizing rallies and meeting with voters in rural Hungary, who traditionally supported Fidesz. Thanks to this, Tisa soon overtook the ruling party in the polls.

• Such tenacity of the leader of Tisa was one of the factors that ensured the party's victory in the elections. The fact that he had defected from the Fidesz party and knew the situation from the inside also played in Magyar's favor. Some critics even call Magyar a younger version of Orban.

He formed a stable political base in just a few months. Such a growth rate is considered rare for European politics.

Fact 7. Pro-European nationalist

Magyar received his law degree in Budapest, specializing in international and European law. During his studies, he studied how the institutions of the European Union work — for example, the role of the European Commission in monitoring compliance with legislation and the mechanisms for allocating European funds. He also understood the legal regulation of international agreements and budget rules, which later helped him work with financial flows and investment projects. His legal training has directly influenced his political style: he often appeals to specific rules and procedures, speaks about the need for transparent tenders, accountability of public spending and compliance with European standards.

• Magyar, like his predecessor Viktor Orban, puts national interests first. He said that the country would remain dependent on Russian energy resources for some time. In other words, Hungary will continue to demand that Ukraine restore the Druzhba pipeline. The leader of Tisa is also against Ukraine's accelerated accession to the EU.

• The European Union and Ukraine welcomed the victory of the leader of the Tisa party, who holds pro-European views. Magyar has already warned that Hungary will not prevent Kiev from providing a loan of €90 billion, but the state does not intend to invest in this initiative, which the EU and Ukraine probably expected.