Peter Magyar One Year In: Magyar–Weber Pact in Effect, Tisza Party MEPs in Campaign Mode

Over the past year, 89 out of 113 speeches by Tisza Party MEPs were directed against Hungary and its government. And that only includes when they spoke in plenary sessions — it's impossible to count how many times Peter Magyar and his party’s MEPs have criticized government policies in other European Parliamentary forums. In Strasbourg, Magyar and his allies launched a coordinated attack against Prime Minister Viktor Orban during the presentation of Hungary’s EU Presidency program, targeting even the government’s utility cost reduction measures. In April, Tisza MEP Kinga Kollar delivered what many have dubbed the party’s own “Oszod speech.” In part two of our series on Peter Magyar’s political activity over the past year, we focus on his party’s conduct in the European Parliament.

Peter Magyar, Tisza Party President and Manfred Weber, European People's Party (EPP) President (Source: MTI)

The Tisza Party’s activities in the European Parliament reflect a political strategy likely agreed upon between Tisza Party chief Peter Magyar and Manfred Weber, President of the European People’s Party (EPP), shortly after the June 9, 2024 European elections. Just five days after the vote, Weber — the overtly anti-Hungarian Bavarian politician — visited Budapest to discuss integrating the Tisza Party’s seven new MEPs into the EPP group. At a joint press conference, Weber famously said, “We hope this is the beginning of a beautiful European friendship.”

At the time, the practical implications of this “friendship” were unclear — but the months that followed made everything apparent. Looking back, it seems

from the start, Magyar intended to use the European Parliament solely for domestic campaign purposes, engaging in little substantive work and instead using his party’s platform in the EP, along with his fellow Tisza MEPs, to further his domestic campaign by publicly attacking the Orban government.

In the first part of this series, we examined Magyar’s disengagement from parliamentary duties in Brussels and Strasbourg. Now, we review the key events where in the EP Tisza MEPs directly criticized the Hungarian government and its policies supporting the Hungarian population's fundamental interests.

The statistics speak for themselves: of the 113 speeches delivered by Tisza MEPs in plenary sessions, 89 were aimed against Hungary or its government — a 79% proportion. This figure doesn’t include the additional countless attacks made in committees, media or social media that also contradicted Hungarian national interests.

Attacking Utility Cost Reductions

One of the most striking examples was the Tisza Party’s push to eliminate Hungary’s price caps on home utility bills. During a September 2024 meeting of the EP Committee on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety, Tisza MEP Gabriella Gerzsenyi criticized this policy, arguing it undermines energy providers — repeating a long-standing left-wing narrative.

"The Tisza Party is doing exactly what every Hungarian leftist-liberal MEP has done before: going to Brussels to attack Hungarian interests and denounce family support measures in exchange for EU praise,"

Andras Laszlo MEP of Fidesz-KDNP remarked on what he is seeing in the EP.

Not much later, the next instance happened: In October 2024, Tisza MEP Eszter Lakos voted in favor of a position paper on the COP29 climate change conference by the EP’s Committee on Industry, Research and Energy, calling for the phase-out of household energy subsidies, like Hungary's utility bill reduction scheme. Patriots for Europe Group member Fidesz MEP Andras Gyurk responded: "Any political force that truly works for the well-being of Hungarian families could never support this."

Full-Frontal Assault on Viktor Orban in Strasbourg

Though Peter Magyar rarely showed up for his job in the EP, he made a point of participating at times when he could score domestic campaign points. A key moment of Hungary's EU Presidency last year was Prime Minister Viktor Orban's Strasbourg session speech on October 9, 2024, detailing Hungary's Presidency goals for the EU. The Tisza Party, in coordination with Manfred Weber’s EPP, used the opportunity to attack the Hungarian government. Peter Magyar responded to Orban’s speech not with policy critique, but with worn, rehashed opposition slogans. In his allotted five minutes, he claimed Hungary had become "the most corrupt country in the EU over the past 20 years" and accused the prime minister of failing to deliver on the country’s potential.

Weber, who also took the floor, made his usual criticisms of the government, but went further — publicly intervening in Hungarian politics by stating that "Peter Magyar is the future," openly endorsing him as Hungary’s next Prime Minister in 2026.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, also of the EPP, also lashed out at Viktor Orban, as did several socialist, liberal, green, and Hungarian MEPs — including DK’s Klara Dobrev. Yet, not one substantive word from the attackers regarding the goals of the Hungarian EU Presidency.

False Claims About Researchers

Tisza MEP Eszter Lakos also falsely claimed that Hungarian researchers are excluded from EU Horizon Europe funding due to domestic policies. The Fidesz EP delegation put out a Facebook videopost of this November 2024 incident. Fidesz MEP Tamas Deutsch responded to Lakos's false claims by saying the suspension is due to Brussels’s "discriminatory and unlawful" decisions, and called the Tisza Party MEP's statements "victim blaming".

Tisza Party’s ‘Oszod Speech’

The biggest scandal came in April 2025, when Tisza MEP Kinga Kollar spoke at a Brussels committee meeting, saying the withholding of EU funds from Hungary is “effective” because it halts economic growth and hospital renovations. She added that the deteriorating quality of life strengthens the opposition. Kollar literally said: “As a Hungarian, I have to say the [rule-of-law] procedure has proven very effective, with around €21 billion suspended, of which €1 billion is already lost. This had a serious impact — the state can’t invest in public services, support the economy, or provide basic social services. For example, under the RRF program, 50 hospitals could have been renovated, which didn't happen.”

Kollar concluded by reiterating: “We can calmly say that the conditionality mechanism is very effective — it strongly affects Hungarians' everyday lives." Then the Tisza MEP gave a political assessment, stating  

"And the positive side of this is: the declining quality of life strengthens the opposition. That’s why I feel very optimistic about the 2026 elections.”

To be continued...