Magyar scores three seats but fails to weaken Orbán: EU election projection

7 months ago 30

Hungary’s new political leader and Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s main challenger, Peter Magyar, is projected to take three seats in the upcoming European elections but failing to weaken the unbothered Fidesz, according to Europe Elects’ latest projections for Euractiv.

Check out the detailed data on the mid-April projections broken down by country on Euractiv’s EU elections page.

Peter Magyar, a former party loyalist and the ex-husband of Fidesz’s former justice minister Judit Varga, is projected to take three seats, not from Orbán and his government, but from opposition forces.

“I’m not nervous about this, we are very confident,” Zoltan Kovacs, Hungary’s International spokesman at the Cabinet Office of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán told reporters including Euractiv last week when asked how he anticipated Magyar’s entrance into national and European political scenes.

“There’s always a couple of tens of thousands of people who are dissatisfied and probably would be looking for alternatives,” he added.

Magyar emerged as a challenger to the prime minister earlier this year after political scandals rocked the country, resulting in the resignation of his ex-wife from all her positions, along with President Katalin Novák.

He then started a campaign against Orbán’s leadership, publishing secretly recorded conversations between himself and his ex-wife, alleging corruption in the government’s highest echelons.

The tapes and opposition to Orbán gave him momentum that crystallised in mass protests in Budapest against the ruling party.

Less than two months before June’s EU elections, Magyar registered his TISZA Party (Respect and Freedom Party) on 10 April to run in both at the European and local level as the first test ahead of parliamentary elections in 2026.

TISZA is expected to join the European People’s Party (EPP), from which Fidesz was expelled in 2021.

While Magyar will lead the EU election list, he will not take up a MEP post, instead preferring to continue his political work in Hungary.

Other key developments since late-March projections

EU: S&D 139 (+4), ID 84 (+2), Renew 84 (-3), ECR 82 (+1), Left 40 (-7).
Germany: CDU (EPP) gains two seats up to 24; Die Grünen (Greens/EFA) loses two seats down to 12; Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht (NI) loses two seats down to five.
France: Europe Écologie Les Verts (Greens/EFA) loses two seats, from eight to six.
Italy: Azione (Renew) goes from zero to three seats.
Denmark: Danmarksdemokraterne announced they will join ECR with their one projected seat.