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You see, elections are always a mirror of societies.
And the Hungarian vote, with its plot twists, scandals, MAGA connections and a flood of AI deepfakes, provides us with a lens through which we can see much more deeply into the continent’s future.
And to see deeper, we must go back to the start.
Meet Péter Magyar, the ultimate insider-turned-whistleblower. And from the very start, the lawyer and former diplomat was a product of Hungary’s conservative elite.
Married for over a decade to Orbán’s former Justice Minister Judit Varga, he had a front-row seat to the government’s inner workings. But when a child abuse pardon scandal forced Varga’s resignation in 2024, Magyar left as well.
Learning from previous opposition leaders’ electoral failures, he realised uniting with the old, fragmented opposition was a dead end. Instead, he bypassed them, attracting voters to build his Tisza movement entirely from scratch.
And he proved his electoral viability in the last European Parliament elections, attracting nearly 30% of the vote and securing a seat as an MEP.
And in yesterday’s elections, Magyar campaigned on an anti-corruption promise, vowing to dismantle state insider networks, rebuild public services and hold the ruling elite accountable.
Yet he completely rejects the liberal label. By wrapping himself in the national flag and adopting patriotic rhetoric, he successfully drew in rural conservative voters feeling abandoned by economic failures.
He also maintained a strong grip on his party. To avoid the gaffes of previous campaigns, he centralised all messaging around himself.
In Brussels, Europe should expect an immediate pivot back to the Western mainstream. Magyar aims to repair broken institutional trust with the EU and NATO.
However, defeating Orbán does not mean a return to a polite diplomatic consensus. To dismantle a political machine and win, Magyar had to adopt its harshness.
And with his top-down party management, he might represent a cold-blooded new era for a pro-European right.
Watch the Euronews video in the player above for the full story.
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