Election campaign in Hungary heats up as Orbán challenger Péter Magyar gains rural support

While Hungary’s parliamentary elections are still five months away, the country is already embroiled in an intense political campaign between Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and his rival Péter Magyar in what promises to be the biggest fight of the nationalist leader’s career.

Orbán, who was first elected in 1998 and was elected for four more terms starting from 2010, has been at the head of Hungary for 20 years. Beloved by his supporters but accused by his critics of corruption and authoritarian tactics, he has overseen a political system in which his far-right Fidesz party has exercised nearly unchecked power.

But now support for Europe’s longest-serving leader is waning due to poor economic performance and chronic inflation, as well as a rival who is turning the political tide by promising to dismantle Orbán’s system and put Hungary on a more prosperous, democratic path.

“We have no doubt that Viktor Orbán will do anything to protect the vile, corrupt government, its stolen spoils and its powers,” Magyar, 44, a former member of Fidesz, told The Associated Press. “This power cannot be reformed, it cannot regain contact with the people. This power has become inhumane.”

grassroots campaign

Most polls show Magyar and the Tisza party with a clear lead over Orbán’s Fidesz; This is an almost unprecedented achievement for any opposition force in the last two decades.

Many observers in Hungary were puzzled by how, unlike generations of Orbán’s previous political opponents, Magyar had managed to emerge from relative obscurity in less than two years and establish a party with such significant support.

András Bíró-Nagy, director of the Budapest-based think tank Policy Solutions, says Magyar’s near-constant “grassroots campaigns” in rural Hungary and his focus on core issues such as the cost of living and poor public services have contributed to his success in small towns that have traditionally gravitated towards Orbán’s nationalist message.

On Thursday, Magyar visited Tab, a community of fewer than 4,000 people in southwestern Hungary. The stop was one of dozens he plans to make across the country on a tour he calls “Road to Victory.”

Hundreds of people packed the town’s socialist-era community center and listened to Magyar speak for nearly two hours. When 76-year-old widowed retiree Erika Bognár entered the event, she angrily declared that her monthly pension was too low to live on and that she wanted “system change because this system sucks.”

“Everywhere in the stores, people are complaining that they can’t make ends meet,” he said. “We live in misery, we have been pushed into complete misery.”

Bognár’s experience mirrors that of many Hungarians who are dissatisfied with their country’s economy. The European Union has frozen nearly 14 billion euros ($16.2 billion) in funding to Hungary over rule of law and corruption concerns; This deficit worsened chronically stagnant economic performance.

Orbán’s government is trying to ease economic pain by imposing price caps on many goods and to woo voters with pre-election government spending such as low-interest loans for first-time homebuyers and eliminating income tax for mothers with at least two children.

Still, Bognár, who said he has rarely voted in elections so far, blames the Orbán government for the rising cost of living and believes that “the situation will not be worse” if Magyar is elected.

war and peace

Orbán sought to portray his rival as an existential danger whose inexperience and alleged foreign allegiances would bankrupt the country and plunge it into war in neighboring Ukraine, allegations Magyar denied.

Unlike almost all EU leaders, Orbán has refused to provide Ukraine with economic aid or weapons to help it defend against an all-out Russian invasion, portraying countries that support Kiev as warmongers.

He also described the EU as an oppressive power and likened the bloc to the Soviet Union, which dominated and occupied Hungary for decades in the 20th century.

Orbán claimed that Tisza’s party was nothing more than a fabricated EU project to overthrow his government in Brussels and install a puppet regime that would funnel Hungary’s finances to Ukraine, even involving it directly in the war.

“Anyone who thinks they support a change of government is actually supporting the war, whether they know it or not,” Orbán told tens of thousands of supporters in October. he said.

“There are many Hungarians who believe that by supporting Brussels and its puppet government candidates, they are supporting a good cause. We must tell them: Brussels is today not a source of help, but a source of danger.”

Orbán’s message is further amplified by the pro-government media empire that has dominated Hungary’s political discourse for more than a decade, as well as by taxpayer-funded campaigns that denigrate Magyar and support Orbán’s policies.

Balázs Orbán, who is not related to the prime minister but is his political director and campaign manager for Fidesz, did not respond to requests for comment.

inclined playground

Bíró-Nagy noted that the last few elections in Hungary were rated “free but not fair” by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, which found “widespread overlap” between Fidesz and government messaging and biased news coverage that “voters have limited opportunity to make an informed choice.”

Bíró-Nagy said the situation regarding the 2026 elections “has not changed at all.” “What we see is that there is no level playing field.”

Sándor Rofrics, a member of a local Tisza activist group in Tab, said that apart from Magyar’s event, he believes “Money, even state money, is of no importance to Fidesz. They will spend a lot of public money on this campaign.”

Magyar acknowledges that his party has fewer resources to campaign and portrays the contest as a “David and Goliath” fight; “We are essentially facing a machine with a full arsenal – propaganda, secret services, unlimited government money.”

Tisza reached out to traditionally dissenting liberal and centrist voters, as well as disaffected Fidesz supporters and voters with more conservative views. Magyar said his party did not define itself along “ideological fault lines” but campaigned on the “image of a functioning and humane Hungary”, bringing EU money home, introducing anti-corruption measures and welcoming everyone in our society.

With the election five months away and Tisza still ahead, Magyar said he felt a desire for change in the towns and villages he visited during the campaign tour. But despite his party’s leadership, “I think you should never underestimate or underestimate your opponent, especially Viktor Orbán.”

“He is an experienced player and he has a lot to lose in this election, perhaps more than the prime minister’s seat,” he said.

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Béla Szandelszky contributed reporting.