For the first time, accusations against the Orbán system come directly from its circle of power. The hopeful Péter Magyar wants to end corruption.

Peter Magyar at an anti-government protest on March 26, 2024 in Budapest Photo: Denes Erdos/ap/dpa

VIENNA taz | Turbulent times in Hungary: the judicial scandal surrounding a controversial amnesty in a pedophile case has become a real government crisis. Recently, new grievances have constantly come to light and thousands of people have taken to the streets for weeks. For the first time in a long time, something resembling a spirit of optimism can be felt in Hungary, where Viktor Orbán has ruled since 2010.

The reason is above all one man: Péter Magyar. The former lawyer worked for Orbán's Fidesz party for years and is considered an absolute connoisseur. He has now publicly broken with his former party and wants to create his own list. The timing is explosive: elections to the European Parliament will be held in three months and, at the same time, local elections will also be held in Hungary.

Experts attribute great potential to Magyar. “For an insider to jump out of the shadows and become the new leader of the opposition is something that is unprecedented in recent years,” says Róbert László, political expert at the “Political Capital” think tank. Magyar doesn't say much new, but he is more credible than the existing opposition, which has disappointed many people.

Who is the man? Magyar, born in Budapest in 1981, studied law and initially worked as a lawyer. Since 2010 he lived in Brussels with his wife Judit Varga, later Orbán's Justice Minister. Magyar worked as an employee of the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and later as a diplomat at the Hungarian Permanent Mission to the EU. From 2015 he worked directly in Orbán's ministerial office as a sort of chief diplomat, before heading the Hungarian Development Bank from 2018.

Explosive information

Until a year ago he was also married to Varga, Fidesz Minister of Justice from 2019 to 2023. Magyar also received explosive inside political information from her: in a recording he has just published, his ex-wife talks about how the government intervened in decisions judicial. Varga explains how Orbán's cabinet minister made the prosecution delete unpleasant conclusions from an investigation file. Corruption is nothing new in Orbán's Hungary, but it has rarely been so palpable.

In addition, there is discontent over the amnesty case that became known in February: in 2023, Hungarian President Katalin Novák pardoned a person who knew of a serious case of child abuse in an orphanage near Budapest. According to the court ruling, the deputy director of the house had covered up the pedophile crimes of her boss for years and forced victims of abuse to give false statements. The amnesty took place very close to a visit by the Pope to the same orphanage.

The case was especially hot because the ruling Fidesz party has been committed to protecting children for years. In 2021, it criminalized homosexual content in media accessible to minors. As a result of several major protests, Novák, who was largely loyal to Orbán, apologized for the amnesty and resigned from the presidency, as did Varga, who had endorsed the pardon as Minister of Justice.

Since then, Magyar has repeatedly said that the government is “corrupt like the mafia.” It is impossible to criticize the system from within, she said in an interview with 24.hu. “Either you get no response, or you are laughed at, or those around you see you as a traitor.”

own party

Orbán's main goal has long been to maintain power, something he wants to achieve with state funding, propaganda and “constant scaremongering and enemy building,” Magyar said. Already in February he saw the “need for a new force that is free of imposed ideologies.” He is now apparently getting serious: he recently announced that he would found his own party and stand in the EU elections. He wanted to position himself “in the middle” and cited reforms to the overburdened school and healthcare systems as important goals.

However, its main theme is likely to remain the fight against corruption. Under Orbán, Hungary fell from 55 (2012) to 42 (2023) points on Transparency International's corruption index. “The grievances in Hungary are widely known. The fact that the accusations now come from the inner circle of power is new,” says József Péter Martin, director of Transparency International Hungary. The Hungarian legal system is firmly in the hands of the government. But Magyar could change political culture, Martin says. The long-standing apathy of the Hungarian population could also end.

Magyar knows how to use social media intelligently and thus stay in the game, says political expert László. This means that he will have no problem gathering the 20,000 signatures needed to stand in the EU elections in time. Andrea Pető, a political scientist at CEU Vienna, also sees greater potential for mobilization. “As long as Magyar is alone on stage, he is vulnerable to attacks on his integrity. The decisive factor will be who from Fidesz joins him.”

It's still exciting, especially since Magyar probably still has a political bomb or two up his sleeve. He has again called for a large protest in Budapest on April 6.