PM Orban Lands Powerful Right Hook on Peter Magyar

The Tisza Party leader was left speechless.

Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban (Photo: MTI / Prime Minister’s Communications Department / Zoltan Fischer)

For Felix Felhevizy, Viktor Orban’s annual Tusvanyos speech has long been the political highlight of the summer. His political assessments, forecasts, strategic analyses and thoughts always make waves in Hungarian public life—and often internationally as well—even weeks after the fact.

PM Viktor Orban's political assessments, forecasts and strategic analyses at Tusvanyos (Photo: Balazs Hatlaczki)

Mr. Orban’s latest speech is also likely to cause a stir. Although the prime minister didn’t dwell much on specific domestic political issues or the upcoming election, he did share a number of forward-looking, noteworthy thoughts while taking a broad view of Hungary, Europe and the world.

One such highlight was the launch of the Digital Civic Circles, which the Hungarian Right sorely needs, given how much ground it has to make up in the online space. A quick scroll through the internet reveals a flood of left-wing, liberal propaganda. And when someone with national-minded views tries to contribute with rational arguments, they’re immediately hit by a wave of aggressive leftist-liberal outrage. That needs to change. The Right must strengthen its presence online, as digital discourse has become extremely valuable.

Still, Viktor Orban did share one concrete point regarding next year’s elections, which amounted to a brutal right hook delivered on opposition leader Peter Magyar:

According to our internal polling, out of the 106 individual electoral districts, we would win 80. That’s a commanding majority—but I am not satisfied. And I ask you not to be satisfied either.

These words don’t just shatter the Tisza Party’s false narrative, which has been built on manipulated left-wing polling—they also show that Fidesz isn’t content with leading; they want to grow even stronger before election day.

Even Gabor Torok, a political scientist that can't be accused of being supportive of the Fidesz government, admitted in an online discussion that Tisza Party chief Peter Magyar’s biggest problem is that too much time remains until the election—which means there’s a constant risk of missteps. And we've seen this play out in recent weeks: Magyar has been making blunder after blunder, from mishandling a storm warning to the jaw-dropping revelation that one of his key team members was once a porn star.

In short, Magyar is on the defensive: he has no program, no candidates, only dubious supporters—and the campaign hasn’t even properly started yet. With the Fight Club and the newly launched Digital Civic Circles, Fidesz has clearly recognized the new landscape and responded in time—so thought Felhevizy, as he set off to visit Aunt Reinfrank to suggest integrating her “Viktor Orban Action Group” as a digital civic circle into this promising new system.

Cover Photo: Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban (Photo: MTI / Prime Minister’s Communications Department / Zoltan Fischer)