STRASBOURG — Euroskeptic Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and his pro-Europe arch-rival have at least one thing in common: neither is completely sold on Brussels.
Péter Magyar, a conservative who was once part of Orbán’s inner circle in Hungary, is now taking him on as the popular opposition leader. The 43-year-old’s fledgling party, Tisza, won nearly a third of the Hungarian vote in June’s European election, leaving Orbán with his worst political performance since taking power in 2010. Now, Magyar is an MEP, sitting with the center-right European People’s Party (the very one Orbán left before he was kicked out).
But if Brussels thinks it has found a surefire ally, Magyar has a warning.
“We are pro-EU but we are not blind to the shortcomings of the EU,” said Magyar in an interview with POLITICO. When asked about the bloc’s policies on the Green Deal, migration, and EU integration, the Hungarian politician deflected the question.
Magyar, the ex-husband of the former justice minister and previously known as a quiet top-level civil servant of Orbán’s government, won over voters by calling out the Hungarian government’s corruption and rule-of-law concerns. He promised to have the EU green-light potentially billions in European funds that have been frozen by Brussels over Hungary’s illiberal policies around academic freedoms, judicial independence and anti-LGBTQ+ laws.
But that’s not to say he agrees with all of the EU’s policies.
“We certainly don’t believe in a European superstate … the EU should help member states achieve their goals in all of these areas, often through joint action, sometimes through enhanced cooperation, and, frankly, sometimes by taking a step backward and recognizing that member states are not united in their views,” Magyar said.
A key disagreement between Magyar and the EPP is that he doesn’t support sending weapons to Ukraine, he said back in June.
“Russia is the aggressor and Ukraine has the right to defend itself, and we should support Ukraine,” he told POLITICO. “We differ on the exact nature of our support.”
Magyar has until the national election in spring 2026 to change the country’s anti-EU course. He will lead the charge from Brussels as a freshly elected MEP and hopes he will have the support of Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen and the EPP.
The EU set the stage for him to debate Orbán in Strasbourg in early October when the two attended the European Parliament’s plenary session. Orbán shook Magyar’s hand; the first time he had done so with a major opposition leader in a decade.
Magyar called it “historic.”
That face-off, according to Magyar, was the first example of how von der Leyen and other EPP figures could support him ahead of national elections — and help him challenge the perception of “European bureaucracy” being the “enemy of Hungarian people.”
For Brussels, Magyar represents a chance to bring Hungary back to the fold after years of Orbán’s increasing opposition to the EU institutions.
Von der Leyen will visit Budapest on Nov. 7 to attend the European Political Community summit, a chance Magyar hopes she will use to meet with him one-on-one, speak with journalists and talk to students about Erasmus and the EU.
Asked if he considers von der Leyen and the EPP close allies, Magyar said: “I don’t think I have any friends in the European Parliament.”
“There are encouraging signs, but neither Tisza nor our partners have yet had enough opportunities” to prove it, he added.
The post Orbán’s nemesis does not fully trust the EU, either appeared first on Politico.
