How Peter Magyar Duped Everyone

Hungarian politician Peter Magyar dons a big smile on his way to the inaugural session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, posting a photo of the trip on Facebook. In essence what he had previously dismissed as out of the question is happening: the vice-president of the Tisza Party will be sitting in one of the most significant decision-making bodies of the EU.

Source: Facebook

"En route to Strasbourg for the first plenary session of the European Parliament (EP)," Peter Magyar boasted on his Facebook page yesterday. This despite the vice-president of the Tisza Party vowing in dozens of interviews and statements during the spring election campaign that he has absolutely no intention of being in the EP and on multiple occasions bragging that he plans on "make a living in the private sector" going forward.

"I will definitely not be in the European Parliament," he said in an interview for Telex back in April.

At the time, he also explained in more detail to Blikk the reasoning behind his future plans: "I would consider it logical that I should lead the party list supported by our On your feet Hungarians movement (TMM) in the EP elections, but this will be decided jointly by our party and the partner party. At the same time, I have no ambition to become an MEP, I would like to work here at home in Hungary until 2026, until the next national parliamentary elections, so we can take back our country."

At a forum in Mezohegyes he said that although he will be at the top of his party's list, he will not go to Brussels. "That I can promise you. I will be working here at home to change the government in Hungary as soon as possible."

Referring to his role in community building, he stated at an April forum in Sarkad that his name atop the EP party list does not mean he will move his headquarters to Brussels: "I will lead this list - obviously now this might be useful because of my name, but I don't plan on going to Brussels. I want to continue working here at home after June to build this community."

It is also worth recalling that Magyar praised the prospective MEPs of his Tisza Party on several occasions during the campaign, but never once mentioned himself as a potential candidate for the position.

By contrast, just a few days after the June 9 EP elections, Peter Magyar was already starting to convince his supporters that he absolutely had to go to Brussels and that it would entail only about eight days a month away to work as an MEP, which he had previously described as a sham position.

While Magyar officially left it to his supporters to decide on the way forward in a poll on his social media page, he listed around half a dozen more arguments in favor of becoming an MEP. His only counter-argument was that many of his supporters did not want him to go. Unsurprisingly, the vote tipped in support of Magyar's idea, and the politician, citing the poll results, took up his EP mandate at the end of June.

All in all, it can be said that in the space of a few weeks, Peter Magyar has gone the full gamut from an absolutely not, through maybe to a definite yes on the question of taking a seat in the European Parliament.

In the upcoming parts of our series, Magyar Nemzet will recount the words and statements the vice-president of the Tisza Party used to describe his current job in Brussels.