Symbols Peter Magyar is tapping into

15 January 2025
Ildi Amon

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Some of it is a lucky coincidence, some of it is intentional I’m sure, but Peter Magyar’s campaign is threaded with symbolism. Even the genesis of it all being that it was his ex-wife’s career demise that led to his own rise has its own fascinating symbolism.

His surname

Let’s start with captain obvious. Peter Magyar lucked out with his surname because it literally translates to “Hungarian.” That’s like someone running for US President and their name is Pete American. It just sounds patriotic and even prophetic in a way.

The Tisza river

Because of Peter Magyar’s sudden rise, to take part in the EU Parliamentary elections at the last minute Peter Magyar had to find a “dormant” party that had registered before the deadline, and basically ask to take it over. After trying to find an appropriate one from more than 100 options (based on things like name, availability, people linked to it, past policies etc), he announced on April 10, 2024 that he chose to adopt the Tisza Party.

At first I didn’t like the name. The Tisza is a river in Hungary but the party’s name is actually an acronym for “Tisztelet és Szabadság Párt” which translates to the respect and freedom party. For me, it was a bit “meh.” I don’t know what i was expecting but something with a bit more oomf and fire power.

I was wrong. I’ve come to see that even its connotation with the Tiszas river is a positive. The Tisza river is the less flashy cousin to the Danube. It’s in the East which is the poorer half of the country. It captures the heart and soul of Hungary and is more salt-of-the-Earth as opposed to the Danube which has connotations with the Blue Danube Waltz and even Vienna.

"Árad a Tisza"

Being the name of a river, it also lends it to what’s become one of the key slogans of the campaign “Árad a Tisza” which literally means “The Tisza is flooding” but implies that the support for the party is growing.

Singing patriotic songs at rallies

One of the things Peter Magyar regularly does is sing songs with everyone at has rallies. One of his favourites is “Tavaszi szél vizet áraszt,” which is a Hungarian folk song about renewal and change and is beloved because Freddie Mercury sang it when he toured in Hungary in 1986.

Lifting hands together

At the end of his big rallies, Peter Magyar asks people to raise their hands together. It symbolises that Hungarians who don’t know each other are linking arm in arm to try to bring change in the country.

Sports & going to sports

Hungarians like to consider themselves quite a sporty country – especially things like hiking or canoeing in nature. At least every month Peter Magyar seems to post photos of himself whether it’s cycling, running a marathon, canoeing, or working out at the gym. He also talks about wanting to encourage Hungarians to be healthier. It also puts his physique and fitness in start relief against Orban, who hasn’t been seen anything to do anything fitness-related in God knows how long.

Lépésről lépésre, tégláról téglára

One of Peter Magyar’s most famous sayings is “Lépésről lépésre, tégláról téglára,” which translates to step-by-step and brick-by-brick the Tisza Party will beat Fidesz and take back the country. It’s a very quoteable quote and is instantly recogniseable now as something that Peter Magyar supporters say. It’s also positive and catchy and implies that things don’t have to happen overnight but will happen bit by bit. It’s also a great slogan that MP can use every time he makes some small achievement to signal momentum.

Inspiring patriotic sayings

Peter Magyar loves weaving in patriotic sayings into his speeches and social posts. For example, “NIncs jobb, nincs bal, csak Magyar!” (there’s no Left, or Right, just Hungarian), or “A haza minden elott!” (the country before everything). It means it’s hard for Fidesz to credibly paint him as anti-Hungarian or a Lefty. And Hungary is ultimately a more conservative and patriotic type of place, using these slogans is endearing and comforting to people.

Talpra Magyarok!

The name MP has given to his movement is “Talpra Magyarok!” which is from the first line of the poem by Petofi Sandor before the 1848 Hungarian revolution, which is “Talpra, magyar, hí a haza!” (“Stand up Hungarians, the homeland calls!”). Again, it pulls on the heartstrings but it’s also a signal that Hungarians will have to play a role in governmental change, if they want it.

Poetry

If you follow Peter Magyar on social media long enough, you’ll see that he’s quite partial to some poetry. Often he’ll just post a whole poem, or sometimes just put a verse at the end of a longer spiel about something else. He weaves lines from poetry into his speeches as well. Here you can see him reciting his favourite poem at a rally.

Hungarians have lots of beloved poets and poems, and kids growing up reciting poetry in school — so these are words and messages that Hungarians can relate to and have fond memories of.

My favourite line that he keeps referring back to is a line from Petofi Sandor Petofi which is “Habár fölűl a gálya, S alúl a víznek árja, Azért a víz az úr!” which roughly means that even though the ship sits above the water, still the water is the master. The implication being that even though the government thinks it’s the boss, it’s really the people who hold real power.

Ne feljetek! Nem felunk

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Touring regional Hungary

I remember a Fidesz fan once telling me that when Orban lost the election in 2002 after being Prime Minister for one term, he didn’t lick his wounds for too long. For 7 years he put on a plaid shirt and pounded the pavement around regional Hungary. He knew he had to win back the people in smaller cities, towns, villages, and places that are even smaller than villages if he were to win again.

Since then many opposition parties have tried and failed to beat Orban from Budapest.

Peter Magyar made it his mission to visit as many regional spots as possible. He did a spring tour before the EU Parliament elections and another tour in late autumn before Christmas. In between, he criss-crossed the country for various events. You can read more on my timeline of 2024 events.

Ludas Matyi

There is a Hungarian folk tale about a little boy called Lúdas Matyi, who sells geese at the market. One day, the mean local Lord called Döbrögi takes his geese and lashes him 25 times. Later on Matyi gets back at him — outsmarting Döbrögi and beating him three separate times in return.

The story is a reminder that powerful people can only treat the average person poorly for so long before they hit back.

Peter Magyar reminds us of the “Lúdas Matyi” analogy by referring to the everyday people as “Ludas Matyik” and those in power as “Döbrögi.”

In fact this story came up in his very first social media post post he said that Hungary is not a country for politicians and oligarchs and a few powerful families, but rather it’s the country of our national heroes, and freedom fighters, and Ludas Matyi’s and that of everyday Hungarians.

Polgari magyarorszag

To put it plainly, it is part of the Hungarian DNA to want to be seen as Central European bourgeois not Eastern European peasant. Straddling both as we are geographically (and in many other ways), Hungary is in a constant state of sliding to the East while trying to drag itself to the the West.

Hungarians naturally yearn to be on a level with the wealthier, more sophisticated Austrians. The promise is always something like “within 10 years we’ll catch up to Austria.” Peter Magyar is also using this promised land as a tactic because it is catnip to many Hungarians. He blames Orban’s thieving ways and his financial mismanagement for letting us slide down the slippery ladder — even joking that we can forget catching up to Austria — now we have to work to catch up to Romania.

There is nothing that galls Hungarians more, so it’s clever to use the promise of a “polgari magyarorszag” – which covers not only economic but things like cultural, social and academic prowess as a way to motivate voters.

Flags at rallies

One of the insidious things Fidesz did was to say that anyone who didn’t vote for Fidesz was not a patriotic Hungarian. They made it so that flags and national symbols were moreso associated with Fidesz.

Peter Magyar took back these symbols for all Hungarians by asking people to bring tri-colour flags to his rallies. The symbolism of this means a lot to people who love being Hungarian but do not support Fidesz – it means that we too can reclaim our symbols.