Péter Magyar (born 16 March 1981) is a Hungarian politician who has served as prime minister of Hungary since May 2026. He has been the president of the Tisza Party since 2024 and was a member of the European Parliament (MEP) from 2024 to 2026.
A former member of Fidesz, which governed Hungary from 2010 to 2026, Magyar rose to political prominence in 2024 in the wake of the Katalin Novák presidential pardon scandal. With the goal of forming a political platform distinct from both Fidesz and older opposition parties, Magyar assumed leadership of the formerly extraparliamentary Tisza and emerged as Hungary's leading opposition leader.
Under Magyar's leadership, Tisza came second in the 2024 European Parliament election and secured a supermajority victory in the 2026 general election, ousting long-serving Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. Magyar's premiership has focused on dismantling the "System of National Cooperation" set up during the Orbán era. To this end, Magyar has initiated amendments to the Fundamental Law removing President Tamás Sulyok and other top Orbán-era officials; imposed term limits on prime ministers and members of the National Assembly; removed Fidesz appointees from the helm of state-funded institutions; established government agencies to reappropriate public assets; and pursued rapprochement with the European Union and Ukraine.
Ideologically, Magyar identifies as a "critical pro-European" and "conservative liberal".
Early life and education Magyar was born on 16 March 1981 in Budapest to a family with Hungarian and, on his maternal grandmother's side, German origins. Both of his parents were jurists: his father, István Magyar, worked as a lawyer; his mother, Mónika Erőss, worked in the judicial branch. He has two younger siblings: his brother, Márton, is a journalist and founder of the media; his sister is a jurist and also works in the judicial branch.
His family from maternal side includes many prominent individuals in Hungarian politics, law and scientific fields. His grandfather was a judge who hosted a popular television program about legal matters. His great-uncle and aunt, Ferenc Mádl and Dalma Mádlwho were also his godparents and Erőss's siblings-in-lawserved as President and First Lady of Hungary from 2000 to 2005. His mother's second cousin Tamás Freund served as President of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences from 2020 to 2026.
Magyar completed his studies at the High School of Piarists and at the Faculty of Law of Pázmány Péter Catholic University in Budapest and at Humboldt University in Berlin as part of the Erasmus Programme, and received his degree in 2004.
Legal and early political career In Fidesz Before entering politics in a local chapter of Fidesz, which was then an opposition party, Magyar participated in the pro bono legal representation and assistance for anti-government activists during the 2006 protests. His earlier role in Fidesz has been variously described as that of a "powerful insider" and "former official". After Fidesz took power in the 2010 parliamentary election, he was appointed to a position in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. A year later, coinciding with the Hungarian European Union presidency, he joined the Permanent Representation of Hungary to the Union. In 2015, he took a post in the Prime Minister's Office. In September 2018, he took over the management of the EU Legal Directorate of the state-owned MBH Bank. Between 2019 and 2022, he was the CEO of the .
Leaving Fidesz Magyar first came to prominence for his criticism of government politicians after the Katalin Novák presidential pardon scandal in February 2024. Novák, then President of Hungary, had granted a presidential pardon in April 2023 to Endre Kónya, the deputy director of a state-run children's home near Budapest. Kónya had coerced children into covering up sexual abuse by his superior, János Vásárhelyi, the home's director. The revelation resulted in anti-government protests demanding that Novák resign; she did so on 10 February 2024. The same day, Judit Varga, a former justice minister and Magyar's then-wife, who had countersigned the pardon, also announced her resignation from the National Assembly and her role leading the Fidesz party list in the June 2024 European Parliament election. In February 2024, Magyar released a voice recording of his ex-wife Varga regarding the Schadl–Völner corruption case, which he had secretly made without her knowledge. It showed that Cabinet Minister Antal Rogán or his associates had manipulated documents in the case in order to hide evidence that would have incriminated Rogán.
Hours after Varga announced her withdrawal from politics, Magyar published a Facebook post declaring that he was resigning his positions in two state-owned enterprises and relinquishing his seat on the board of a third, MBH Bank. He wrote that the past few years had made him realize that Viktor Orbán's professed ideal of a "national, sovereign, bourgeois Hungary" was in fact a "political product" that obscured massive corruption and transfers of wealth to those with the right connections.
In the following weeks, Magyar conducted a number of interviews with Hungary's most popular news organizations, including Partizán, Telex, and 444, in which he extensively criticized the government, particularly Minister of the Prime Minister's Cabinet Office Antal Rogán. He claimed that during his tenure as the head of the national student loan provider, he had been forced to favor those close to Orbán in public invitations to tender and pressured on aspects of his divorce. His first interview, in which he said that "a few families own half the country", had been viewed more than two million times as of March 2024.
On 20 March 2024, Magyar testified for several hours at the Metropolitan Prosecutor's Office regarding the high-profile corruption case involving President of the Court Bailiffs over bribes paid to former Secretary of State for Justice Pál Völner. Shortly after his testimony, he announced to the press that he had proof in the form of audio recordings that Cabinet Minister Antal Rogán or his associates had manipulated documents in the case in order to hide evidence that would have incriminated Rogán. In a Facebook post a few days later, he promised to make the recordings public at 9 am on 26 March 2024, the date of his next appointment to testify and present the evidence to the prosecutors. He wrote that once this happened, Chief Prosecutor Péter Polt as well as the entire Orbán government would have no choice but to resign. On 26 March, Magyar released the recording to the public. It contains a two-minute discussion between himself and his ex-wife Judit Varga about the Schadl-Völner corruption case. Varga's comments implicate Rogán in tampering with evidence by having his and/or his associates' names removed from documents associated with the case. He has turned the recording over to prosecutors.
Fidesz, concerned about unwanted attention Magyar's appearances were drawing to Fidesz, launched initiatives to discredit him. Allegations started by pro-government newspapers and public figures tried to defame Magyar by accusing him of domestic violence. According to right-wing Journalist Zsolt Bayer, "we here in Fidesz have known for about ten years how he treats his wife". A police report from December 2020 was leaked and widely reported by government-affiliated media. It detailed aggressive behavior by Magyar toward his wife and the police officers who arrived at her request to intervene in a heated argument. Magyar said the report was "90% lies".
Magyar continued publishing posts critical of figures associated with the government in the subsequent days, claiming that people friendly with or related to the prime minister, like his son-in-law István Tiborcz, had amassed enormous wealth hidden behind domestic private equity funds. On 15 March 2024, he held a rally attended by tens of thousands in Budapest at which he announced the formation of a new political party. According to polling conducted that month, around 15 percent of voters claimed they were "certain or highly likely" to vote for Magyar if he ran for office.
On 6 April 2024, Magyar organised a second demonstration against the government, citing what he calls a "feudalistic system" that needs dismantling. Hundreds of thousands of protesters attended. The government-supported Megafon think tank spent 117 million HUF on an ad campaign against Magyar on Facebook in the weeks leading up to the rally.
Leader of the opposition (2024–2026)
Tisza Party
Magyar joined the Tisza Party to contest the 2024 European Parliament elections. Magyar decided to take over the minor party (as opposed to founding a new one) to overcome time constraints and potential administrative problems. Following the announcement, Magyar quickly gained national attention and significant public support, challenging both the ruling Fidesz and the traditional opposition. Following the 2024 European Parliament election, the Tisza Party emerged as the strongest opposition party in Hungary, and Magyar was widely regarded as the new leader of the opposition.
While the Tisza Party officially avoids fixed ideological labels, Magyar's rhetoric often reflects centrist and moderate conservative values, emphasising national unity and political accountability over partisanship. Magyar has repeatedly stated that the Tisza Party would not enter into any alliance with the so-called "old opposition" parties, emphasising that Tisza intended to challenge Fidesz on its own in the 2026 parliamentary elections. Magyar was unanimously chosen as the leader of the Tisza Party's national list and prime ministerial candidate. Under his leadership, Tisza adopted the slogan "Now or never!" (). In the latter stages of the 2026 campaign, signs appeared with "or never" crossed out to convey urgency.
Demonstrations Before the 2024 European Parliament elections, Magyar held four major demonstrations that attracted tens of thousands of participants. The first, on 15 March 2024, took place at the Andrássy Avenue, before he joined the Tisza Party and marked his emergence as a political figure following his public criticism of the government.
He organised a second large rally on 6 April 2024, where sympathizers marched from Deák Square to Kossuth Square in Budapest. During the 6 April rally, Magyar announced that he would begin a nationwide political tour, stating that his next major event would be held in Debrecen, in front of the Reformed Great Church on 5 May 2024, Mother's Day. Magyar held his fourth major rally on 8 June 2024 at the Heroes' Square in Budapest as the closing event of the Tisza Party's campaign for the European Parliament election.
After the election, Magyar held eight more demonstrations. Magyar organised his fifth major rally on 5 October 2024 in front of the headquarters of Hungary's public broadcaster MTVA. During the demonstration, he placed a poster listing sixteen demands on the building's main entrance, calling for media freedom and government accountability.
Magyar held his sixth major rally on 23 October 2024, commemorating the anniversary of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. The demonstration began at and continued with a march to in Budapest, attracting tens of thousands of participants. Magyar held his seventh major rally on 15 March 2025 in Budapest, at the same location as his first demonstration a year earlier. During the event, he announced the launch of the "Voice of the Nation" public consultation, which he described as a form of grassroots referendum. The results of the initiative were intended to be incorporated into the Tisza Party's future political programme. Former Chief of General Staff, Romulusz Ruszin-Szendi also appeared on stage as the defence policy expert of the Tisza Party.