Who is Péter Magyar Hungary’s new leader? – UK Times

Péter Magyar has been elected as prime minister of Hungary following in a dramatic win against long-time leader Viktor Orbán.

The Tisza party, a centre-right, pro-European party, led by Mr Maygar, won Hungary’s elections this evening, overcoming Mr Orbán, and Fidesz party, who had a 16-year tenure and won four straight elections.

Leading up to election night, Magyar sought to whittle away at Orbán’s rural support base with months of relentless touring in the countryside.

Who is Péter Magyar?

Péter Magyar, 45 years old, is a lawyer turned politician and comes from a political family with deep political connections, including his great uncle Ferenc Mádl, a former president of Hungary.

He went to an elite Catholic boys’ high school near the centre of Budapest, then went on to study law at a Catholic university in the capital.

In 2006, he married former Fidesz party justice minister Judit Varga, and the pair have three sons. The couple divorced in March 2023.

His rise to prominence

Mr Maygar first joined the Fidesz party while he was still in college. He also eventually became closely tied to the party’s chief of staff Gergely Gulyás.

He met his wife, Judit Varga, in 2005, who at the time was a rising star within the Fidesz party, and married her in 2006.

Ms Varga eventually became justice minister in 2019.

However, in 2024, he broke with the party after a scandal emerged, involving his wife, over the pardoning of a man who had helped cover up the crimes of a notorious paedophile by the Fidesz government.

Maygar released a secret recording of his wife, which allegedly captured her describing the government’s interference in the case.

In 2024, Magyar joined the little-known Tizsa party to contest the European Parliament elections and won 29 per cent of the vote last June. Under his leadership, the party adopted the slogan “Now or never!”

Magyar’s political stances

He is widely seen as an “insider” turned dissident of the Fidesz party and has leant into this narrative, telling the BBC in 2024, “After a while, I became more and more critical, openly and just among friends. I can tell you that the Fidesz we see today is very, very different from the one I joined in 2002.”

“I was always told by the politicians it’s necessary to keep power – I accepted it for a time. But of course, the turning point was in 2024.”

Magyar’s “Now or never” slogan dates back to a revolutionary poet’s 19th-century rallying cry to rise for the homeland.

He has promised to tackle corruption, improve the economy, and sought to gain support from Hungary’s disadvantaged Roma community.

The Tizsa leader has also pledged to unlock billions of euros in EU funds.