The opposition party Tisza is preparing to win the parliamentary elections in Hungary and to question the system of power built by Viktor Orban, the man who transformed the country into a laboratory of sovereign nationalism. According to a survey conducted on the eve of the vote, the team led by the 45-year-old Peter Magyar he would be ahead with 55 percent of the vote, against 38 percent for Orban’s Fidesz party. The survey was conducted by the Centro 21 institute and disseminated by the newspaper Telex simmediately after the polls close.
The profile
Magyar was born in 1981 to a family of lawyers, studied law and worked for the Foreign Ministry. He then went to the prime minister’s office in Brussels, later moving to a state bank and running a student loan agency. In 2006 he married Judit Varga, who would become Orban’s Justice Minister. The two, later divorced in 2023, have three children. His political explosion came in 2024, after the case of the pardon granted to a man involved in a case of sexual abuse of minors, a scandal that overwhelmed Varga and opened a breach in the ethical narrative of Fidesz. A few months later, almost out of nowhere, Magyar led his new party, Tisza, to 30 percent in the European elections.
Record turnout
The vote that involved approx 8 million Hungarian citizens are preparing to go down in history with a record turnout. At 5pm on Sunday 12 April, 74 percent of those entitled to vote had voted, a percentage that not only exceeds the turnout at the same time for the 2022 vote, equal to 62 percent, but also the total turnout of the previous consultation, which at the end of the day was 69.5 percent. In 1990, when the first free elections took place after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the turnout was 65.1 percent.
The accusations of fraud
In recent hours, accusations and counter-allegations of fraud have been recorded throughout the country. On the government front, Balazs Orban, advisor to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, spoke of a “wave of reports”, accusing Péter Magyar’s rivals of attempts to buy votes, intimidation and aggressive behavior at the polls. “Cases emerge of pressure on employees, chaotic scenes at the polling stations and incidents aimed at influencing voters, even with the use of drones and threats”, denounced the councilor, speaking of operations linked to interests “supported by Brussels and Kiev” and inviting us to let “the Hungarians decide freely”.
From the opposite side there have been reports to the contrary. Independent MP Ákos Hadházy reported a case in Vác, where a person was allegedly added to the national minority lists without his knowledge, thus losing the right to vote for the national list and only being able to vote for the individual candidate. Other accusations involved alleged attempts to buy votes in favor of Fidesz. In Kerepes, according to the 444 portal, 10,000 forint shopping vouchers that could be used in the Penny Market chain were distributed, intended – according to reports – to voters who voted for the government party.
