{"id":135,"date":"2026-04-16T10:09:27","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T10:09:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/2026\/04\/16\/who-is-hungarys-peter-magyar-and-how-he-overturned-viktor-orbans-illiberal-democracy\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T10:09:27","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T10:09:27","slug":"who-is-hungarys-peter-magyar-and-how-he-overturned-viktor-orbans-illiberal-democracy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/2026\/04\/16\/who-is-hungarys-peter-magyar-and-how-he-overturned-viktor-orbans-illiberal-democracy\/","title":{"rendered":"\u200bWho is Hungary\u2019s P\u00e9ter Magyar and how he overturned Viktor Orb\u00e1n\u2019s illiberal democracy"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n<\/div>\n<\/p>\n

\u200aThe day after P\u00e9ter Magyar ousted Victor Orb\u00e1n as prime minister of Hungary, he gave a combative press conference. He spoke in Hungarian, but was talking to the world \u2013 and particularly to Europe. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe will do everything to restore the rule of law, plural democracy, and the system of checks and balances,\u201d Magyar said<\/a>, calling his election a historic moment for Hungary<\/a>. <\/p>\n

During 16 years in power, Orb\u00e1n and his Fidesz party managed to take control of many of Hungary\u2019s levers of power, from the judiciary to state-owned media, and weakened the institutions that could keep them accountable. Orb\u00e1n liked to call it an illiberal<\/a> democracy. <\/p>\n

Magyar also urged the Hungarian president to move swiftly to install him as prime minister, before any more damage could be done by Orb\u00e1n\u2019s loyalists. \u201cWe know that people have been destroying documents, just like in the old communist age, that shredders are working full time,\u201d he said<\/a>. <\/p>\n

In this episode of The Conversation Weekly<\/a> podcast, Zsolt Enyedi, professor of political science at the Central European University and an expert in Hungarian politics, explains how Magyar, a former member of Fidesz, manage to beat Orb\u00e1n, his former boss. <\/p>\n

Magyar\u2019s moment<\/h2>\n

Enyedi describes Magyar as a centre-right figure with some nationalistic attributes, who is a bit eurosceptic with \u201csome reservations against progressive way of speaking\u201d. However, Enyedi says Magyar changed since first entering politics in 2024, when he gave an explosive interview criticising Orb\u00e1n\u2019s regime. <\/p>\n

Back then he was \u201cclearly someone who reproduced many of the ideological panels of this Orb\u00e1nist regime, but he was very critical of the corruption that exists in the regime\u201d. He was likened to a clean, young version of Orb\u00e1n himself.<\/p>\n

Since then, Magyar has spent two years travelling around Hungary speaking to people across the country on the campaign trail. \u201cHe started to understand better the enormous harm done by the Fidesz regime, and he also became more pro-European in his rhetoric, embracing the democratisation agenda,\u201d says Enyedi. <\/p>\n

Magyar is now able to \u201cprovide the lowest common denominator for all pro-democratic forces,\u201d says Enyedi. \u201cIn that sense, he\u2019s more than simply representative of one political ideological current.\u201d<\/p>\n

As European leaders breathe a sign of relief at Magyar\u2019s victory, Enyedi says although Europe has not gained an \u201centhusiastic partner\u201d, he will be a much more constructive one. \u201cPartly out of conviction, partly because he needs EU money<\/a> and he needs that money soon. So he cannot play games. He has to make a deal with the EU leadership.\u201d <\/p>\n

Listen to the interview with Zsolt Enyedi on The Conversation Weekly<\/a> podcast. This episode was written and produced by Gemma Ware, Mend Mariwany and Katie Flood. Mixing by Eleanor Brezzi and theme music by Neeta Sarl.<\/em><\/p>\n

Newsclips in this episode from CNN<\/a>, CRM News<\/a>, euro<\/a>news<\/a> and Partiz\u00e1n<\/a>.<\/em> <\/p>\n

Listen to The Conversation Weekly via any of the apps listed above, download it directly via our RSS feed<\/a> or find out how else to listen here<\/a>. A transcript of this episode is available via the Apple Podcasts or Spotify apps.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Zsolt Enyedi has received EU Horizon funding. <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u200aThe day after P\u00e9ter Magyar ousted Victor Orb\u00e1n as prime minister of Hungary, he gave a combative press conference. He spoke in Hungarian, but was talking to the world \u2013 and particularly to Europe. \u201cWe will do everything to restore the rule of law, plural democracy, and the system of checks and balances,\u201d Magyar said, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}