Left-Wing Outlets Call Out Peter Magyar's Lies

Lately, even left-wing media outlets have been debunking Peter Magyar’s false claims. This time, Lakmusz, the fact-checking portal of 444.hu, published a detailed article revealing that the MEP and Tisza Party chief was not truthful about the number of times he attended European Parliament sessions. Contrary to his claim of attending over 50% of the sessions, his actual attendance rate is only 38%. In our compilation, we recall some of Peter Magyar’s most egregious and absurd lies.

Lakmusz, the fact-checking blog of the 444.hu outlet, conducted an in-depth analysis of Peter Magyar's attendance to date in the European Parliament. Citing various sources, the article concluded that the Tisza Party chief was not truthful when claiming he had participated in well over half of the sessions. In reality, his attendance rate is only 38%, making him by far the least active Hungarian MEP.

Moreover, the blog pointed out another falsehood: Magyar claimed he had attended twice as many sessions as Tamas Deutsch, a Fidesz politician. In fact, Deutsch attended 88% of the sessions, more than double Magyar’s attendance.

While the top man of the Tisza Party has been caught lying on several occasions before, the new development is that even the left-wing media is now exposing his falsehoods.

Here's a compilation of Peter Magyar’s most serious false claims

"Me, entering politics? Are you joking?"

In his first public interview with Partizan in February last year, Magyar claimed it was a “bad joke” to think he’d enter into politics. Yet, his own actions belied his claim: within weeks, in mid-March, he started a political movement, transformed it into a party, ran in the June 9 elections, and won a seat in the European Parliament.

Lies about ATV invitations

On June 10, during an appearance on ATV’s "Egyenes Beszed," Magyar accused the host of not having invited him to appear between March 28 and May 3. Host Egon Ronai refuted this with documented invitations, even handing Magyar a copy of the records. 

Magyar then stormed out of the studio, later dismissing ATV's documented evidence as a “false narrative”—despite having appeared specifically on that show on April 8, 2024.

Denial of Domestic Abuse Allegations

At a spring campaign rally in Kaposvar last year, Magyar claimed that in the interview his ex-wife, Judit Varga (former minister of Justice) gave for TV2's Frizbi program, she never accused him of abusing her, but on the contrary "she mentioned that she had abused" him. 

However, Varga publicly mentioned multiple instances of physical abuse, including being shoved up against a door while pregnant, having books thrown at her, and being hit with a belt in the pants he also threw at her.

Contradicting Himself 

On May 9, 2023, on a visit to Miskolc Magyar denied ever applying for a job with billionaire Lorinc Meszaros, calling it “propaganda lies.” (audible at 3:00 in the video)  

However, in a Valasz Online podcast a month earlier, he had a different story: "Back then I was negotiating with one of Meszaros’s companies, but not with he himself. I was working at a company and wanted to switch to a different one." (at 8:46 in the video)

Claiming Police Blocked Internet at Rallies

Peter Magyar also had some comical, albeit creative untruths as well. Like when he accused authorities of intentionally blocking  internet and cell service access at his campaign events, which prevented him from livestreaming them on Facebook. He even posted photos of "the alleged equipment for the task" in the "hands of plain-clothed  police officers (possibly secret agents?)" at a rally in Hajdunanas. 

The Hungarian police responded on police.hu clarifying that the devices shown on the photos were standard police radios, commonly used at public gatherings, debunking the conspiracy theory.

Lies about real wages

During an election debate on public television, Magyar made some outrageous claims about the standard of living in Hungary. H claimed real wages had decreased by 15-20% over two years. This was disproven by Lakmusz, citing data put out by the Hungarian Central Statistical Office (KSH) showing a 2.5% increase in 2022 and only a 2.9% decrease in 2023. The actual two-year decline was just 0.47%.

False claims about poverty

Magyar often claimed Hungary was the second poorest country in the EU. However, again Lakmusz proved him wrong citing EUROSTAT statistics. According to Eurostat’s 2023 data, Hungary’s per capita GDP (adjusted for purchasing power) was 76.4% of the EU average, ranking fifth worst among the 27 member states, not second worst, the left-wing affiliated factcheckers wrote.

Absurdity: average age in Belgium is 88

Another of the Tisza Party president's absurd statements: that "in Western Europe, in Belgium, 90% of people play sports, and the average age is 88 years. And people live healthily until the age of 80."

Of course, Peter Magyar mentioned absurd figures. In reality, the average age in Belgium is 41.9 years, while the average for the European Union is 44.5 years.