BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) 鈥� Hungarian spent most of his professional life moving comfortably within the political world built by Prime Minister . On Sunday, he brought that system down.
The 45-year-old lawyer and leader of the opposition Tisza party has charted a since bursting into public view in early 2024. He galvanized large numbers of voters across Hungary who gave him a powerful mandate in Sunday’s election, ending Orb谩n鈥檚 16-year grip on power.
鈥淭ogether we liberated Hungary, we took back our country,鈥� Magyar told tens of thousands of his jubilant supporters at a victory party alongside the Danube River in Budapest, the country’s capital, late on Sunday night.
鈥淵ou gave us a mandate to build a functioning and humane home for all of us,鈥� he said to thundering cheers from the jubilant crowd.
Before emerging as the prime minister鈥檚 most effective critic, Magyar spent years inside the governing elite. A member of Orb谩n鈥檚 nationalist-populist Fidesz party since 2002, he moved easily within its political ecosystem, holding senior posts at state-run institutions and rubbing elbows with figures at the center of power.
While some of Magyar鈥檚 supporters are wary of his former ties to the ruling party, others believed only someone who has seen Orb谩n鈥檚 system from the inside can bring it down.
Magyar’s personal life has faced scrutiny. His ex-wife, Judit Varga, accused him of abusive behavior during their marriage. Magyar has denied the allegations, saying they were part of a political campaign to discredit him after he turned against the ruling party.
The right man at the right time
His rise that, disenchanted with previous generations of fragmented and ineffectual opposition parties, has long sought a viable alternative to Orb谩n.
While Orb谩n has campaigned on a facing Hungary, like the war in neighboring Ukraine, Magyar has focused on bread-and-butter issues that affect ordinary Hungarians: inflation, low wages, the deterioration of public health care and transportation, and endemic corruption.
While Magyar has succeeded in mobilizing Orb谩n critics from across the political spectrum, support for him is not always rooted in ideological alignment. Some liberal voters remain wary of his combative style and conservative views.
Hoping to avoid mistakes by previous opposition leaders who gave Fidesz ammunition for attacks, Magyar has carefully avoided taking firm positions on a number of divisive issues like Orb谩n鈥檚 and whether Hungary should extend more support to Ukraine.
The insider
Magyar has described himself as drawn to politics from an early age. As a child growing up during the final years of communist rule, he admired Orb谩n and his circle of young liberal democrats who were challenging Soviet domination at the end of the Cold War.
Magyar has said he watched parliamentary debates on television while in grade school and attended political demonstrations with his parents. Immersed in conservative politics, Magyar joined Fidesz in 2002 at 21, and formed friendships with other rising figures in the party including , who would later become Orb谩n鈥檚 chief of staff.
After graduating with a law degree from a Catholic university in 2003, Magyar began working as a lawyer. In 2006, while Fidesz was in opposition, he provided pro bono legal representation to anti-government demonstrators arrested during violent protests against the then-Socialist government.
That same year, he married fellow lawyer Judit Varga, who would later become . The couple moved to Brussels in 2009, where Varga worked advising a Hungarian member of the European Parliament.
During their years abroad, alongside a stint as a stay-at-home father for their three children, Magyar worked for Hungary’s Foreign Ministry and as a diplomat with its permanent representation to the European Union.
After returning to Hungary with his family in 2018, Magyar moved into leadership roles at several state-affiliated institutions. Meanwhile, Varga鈥檚 star was rising within Fidesz, and she was appointed justice minister in 2019. Alongside Katalin Nov谩k, an Orb谩n ally who in 2022 became Hungary鈥檚 youngest president and the first woman to hold the office, Varga was widely seen as a possible successor to Orb谩n.
But a political scandal in 2024 was soon to change Magyar鈥檚 personal and political trajectory, and fundamentally transform Hungarian politics.
Pardon scandal
After returning from Brussels, Magyar’s relationship with Varga deteriorated, and the couple divorced in 2023.
The following year, Varga was implicated in a when it emerged that President Nov谩k had granted a pardon to a convicted accomplice in a child sexual abuse case. The decision shocked the country and led to , while Varga, who had endorsed the pardon, also stepped down.
The next day, Magyar gave a lengthy interview to the popular Hungarian YouTube channel Partiz谩n in which he publicly broke with Fidesz, accusing Orb谩n鈥檚 government of systemic corruption and operating in the interests of a small circle of political and economic elites.
The interview quickly went viral, drawing more than 2 million views in a country of fewer than 10 million, and transformed Magyar from a relatively obscure insider into a national political figure overnight.
In the weeks that followed, he intensified his criticism of the government and began organizing public events. On March 15, Hungary鈥檚 national holiday, he of supporters in Budapest and announced plans to launch a new political movement that would later become the Tisza party.
In June that year, Tisza in European Parliament elections, and Magyar became an EU lawmaker.
In interviews since entering politics, Magyar has portrayed himself as someone who often voiced dissent even while working within the Fidesz system, saying he regularly expressed criticism and pushed for internal debate.
Beyond the substance of his criticism of Orb谩n鈥檚 rule, Magyar has developed a level of political celebrity that, not counting Orb谩n, is rarely seen in Hungarian politics. After his rallies, crowds often surge toward the stage to take selfies with him, waiting patiently as he poses for photos with supporters one by one.
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