BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Nearly three months ago, a scandal rocked the Fidesz party of Viktor Orbán, a five-time nationalist prime minister who touts family values and Christian conservatism.
President Katalin Novak and Justice Minister Judit Varga, close aides to Prime Minister Orban, be forced to resign Peter Magyar seized the opportunity and left the party in February over the presidential pardon of a man convicted of covering up a string of child sexual abuse cases.
Within weeks, Magyar, a 43-year-old lawyer, had launched a political movement that is now Hungary’s largest opposition force and is poised to challenge Orban’s party in the June 9 European Parliament and local elections.
In a recent interview with The Associated Press, Magyar said the election was a “prelude” to him running in Hungary’s general election scheduled for 2026.
It remains to be seen whether he can pull off the victory.
Orban has led his Fidesz party to four consecutive victories in the Hungarian parliament since 2010 and has won majorities of the vote in the past two European Parliament elections. Despite its declining support and poor electoral performance, opinion polls suggest his party is still expected to outperform its opponents. Severe economic downturn The Prime Minister has lost thousands of supporters.
Still, Magyar seized on the populist’s growing disillusionment with Orbán and breathed life into the existing but inactive “Respect and Freedom” party.
A series of widely-watched interviews MeetingHe criticized the Orban government. Monitor for serious corruption And using a widespread government-controlled propaganda network, he promotes himself as a more moderate alternative to conservatives.
“Our proposal is very simple: we have to do something completely different in Hungary,” he said in an interview, adding that Hungarians are “tired of the fact that in 2024 we are facing an economic, political, moral, legal and existential crisis.”
A May opinion poll showed Magyar’s party had the support of about a quarter of voters in June’s election.
However, voters have been disappointed before.
Two years ago, some 2 million Hungarians pinned their hopes for change on a coalition of six opposition parties that set aside political differences to form a united front against the Fidesz party in national elections.
But Orban’s party is back A landslide victoryInfighting then ensued, leading to the de facto disintegration of the coalition and a credibility crisis for the opposition.
“It’s true that people are at least as fed up with the opposition (as Fidesz),” Magyar said.
Since April, Magyar has been touring Hungary’s rural heartland, Orban’s base, drawing thousands of curious onlookers, a feat rarely achieved by a traditional opposition politician before.
At a rally in the Fidesz stronghold city of Debrecen earlier this month, Magyar He spoke to a crowd of about 10,000 people. He accused “government propaganda” of trying to discredit his movement as “nothing more than media hacks from downtown Budapest” and criticized Hungary’s opposition parties for abandoning Hungary’s rural people.
The June elections come as the war in Ukraine escalates amid fears that Russia could set its sights on the Balkans.
Orban has framed this year’s election as an existential struggle between war and peace, and has positioned his party as a separate entity that calls for an immediate end to the fighting in Ukraine, which critics say will allow Russia to hold on to territory it has seized and further embolden it.
He has been the prime minister for many years, Relationship with Russian President Putin Even after Moscow launched a military operation against Ukraine in 2022 and accused the US and EU of being “pro-war” and that domestic opponents, including Magyar, were plotting to directly draw the Hungarian army into the conflict.
He also criticized sanctions against Moscow, Rejecting EU financial aid to Kiev meanwhile Expanding energy trading This comes at a time when most EU countries are calling for limits on Russia’s use of fossil fuels.
While condemning Orbán’s dealings with Russia, Mager shares the view that sanctions have disproportionately harmed the European economy and agrees with Orbán’s criticism of Kiev’s treatment of Russia. A significant Hungarian ethnic minority It is located in the western part of Ukraine.
Still, he is clear about the potential risks if Russia is allowed to keep the Ukrainian territories it occupies, including the Crimean peninsula, which Moscow annexed in 2014.
“Putin is the aggressor, he attacked Ukraine. There is no excuse for that. Ukraine’s struggle for the defense of its territory is completely legitimate,” he said in the interview.
Hungary, led by Prime Minister Viktor Orban, is embroiled in a long-running dispute with the European Union, which accuses him of ignoring the rule of law and democratic standards and failing to crack down on corruption that misuses EU funds.
From 2022 onwards, the European Parliament will officially consider Hungary as a ” Hybrid electoral dictatorshipIt’s no longer a true democracy.”
The European Union has withheld about 20 billion euros ($21.7 billion) in financial aid because of Budapest’s rule of law violations, further hurting its struggling economy.
But Magyar said he and his party were “putting an end to the completely unnecessary rule of law debate” with the EU, which recently Release of frozen funds to Poland This comes just months after pro-EU Prime Minister Donald Tusk took over from the previous right-wing government.
He said this is a sign that the new leadership can finally bring the money home.
“I can promise all Hungarians and Brussels that a solution (to release the funds) will be found,” Magyar said. “Hungary really needs the frozen funds, but the EU also needs a more constructive Hungary.”
