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Timeline 2025: The Orban vs Magyar battle heats up

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This timeline of events in Hungarian politics in 2025, follows on from one I did covering the timeline of events in 2024 and is update on a continual basis.

January

  • 1 January: Things literally kick off within the first few minutes of the New Year with Peter Magyar taking over the traditional midnight address time-slot from the President who decided he didn’t feel like doing it this year. Peter Magyar’s speech was widely praised and got a million views within one day. You can watch it here. He also called for the 2026 elections to be brought forward — pretty brazen considering he doesn’t have his candidates lined up yet. 
  • At the end of last year, Orban said that Hungary would get off to a “flying start” this year – maybe he meant it literally as he flew off to India on vacation. Although you can’t fault someone for taking holidays, it’s not a great start to the year especially as he has the country in a State of Emergency and because one of his last social posts pre-Christmas was alluding to the fact that the work never stops.
  • 7 January: In an incredible turn of events, Rogan Antal – a total creep in my personal view – was placed on a sanctions list by the US for “orchestrating Hungary’s system for distributing public contracts and resources to cronies loyal to himself and the Fidesz political party” – in other words stealing from the Hungarian people.
  • 12 January: Mid-term elections are held in Tolna county, which Tisza doesn’t participate in and Fidesz wins. Fidesz accuses Tisza of not being brave enough to run, which I think is silly as Tisza has to focus on the main goal of winning the next general election. Orban jokes that this election is the early election that Peter Magyar wanted in his New Year’s address. It’s a funny joke, but also shows that Peter Magyar’s comments are getting under Orban’s skin otherwise he would ignore them.
  • 14 January: When Tisza first got into the European Parliament last year Peter Magyar put it to a social media vote as to whether he should pick up his mandate or stay in Hungary full-time. At the time it was criticised as a leading question as it was clear he did want to take up the role. At the time, he promised to re-take the vote in six months and that he would follow whatever was decided. Well the time for the follow-up vote has rolled around and it was once again voted (with 95%) that he could keep his EU mandate. It’s a bit funny but also a good way to engage his supporters and keep himself in the news cycle.
  • 16 January: Gulyas Gergo, one of Fidesz’s most prominent politicians, calls Peter Magyar a traitor. In response, Peter Magyar explains in a social post why Gulyas Gergo is the real traitor. It’s interesting because they are former besties, and Gulyas is God Father to one of Magyar’s children.
  • 16 January: Peter Magyar claims that one of Tisza’s volunteers was physically attacked.
  • 18 January: A Hungarian rapper called Majka releases a new music video where a character representing Peter Magyar gives a truth serum to a character representing Orban. The Orban character then reveals all of his corruption and other misdeeds on TV. The clip gets more than 10 million views within just a few days. Read more here. It’s funny because Majka was previously close to Fidesz, and when Orban did a fun pop quiz and was asked “Azahriah or Majka?” he chose Majka.
  • As part of his role Peter Magyar speaks several times at the European Parliament this month.
  • 26 January: For some inexplicable reason Orban posts a video claiming victory over Covid-19 and self-congratulating over how well it was handled. It is totally bizarre as a huge number of Hungarians died. No one has fond memories and certainly no one wants to think about it out of the blue. As a quick reaction, Peter Magyar also publishes a live video where he talks with Dr Kulja András — one of Tisza’s EU represenatives. Their video gets many more views than Orban’s one.
  • 28 January: We can’t end the month without a highlight (or lowlight), which is Deutsch Tamas – Fidesz’s leader in the European Parliament attempting to speak English. Not bad after almost 20 years in an international role — knowing English this badly must have taken quite some work! And here’s a funny comparison mashup of Deutsch vs Dora David.
  • 31 January: Orban does his usual performative release of his annual tax returns, which shows that he basically has $30,000 dollars to his name and a couple of modest properties. Who believes this rubbish? By the way if it’s true, then he is just as bad at managing his personal finances as the nation’s finances. 
  • Peter Magyar reported that childcare workers at a pre-school were sacked or put on notice for accepting Tisza’s Christmas gifts in December. If this story is true, Fidesz is truly diabolical.

In a very convoluted story that broke out in Jan/Feb, with the support of Tisza’s representatives the City of Budapest was able to jump in and buy a huge chunk of land in Rákosrendező that the Hungarian government had previously sold to Arab investors based in Dubai. Luckily, someone noticed at the last minute that the sale agreement gave the City a first option to buy. In another loss-of-face for Fidesz, it had no choice but to allow the city to buy the tract of land after everyone sided with Mayor Karacsony’s plans — except for the Fidesz representatives. The development had caused such a stir because there were potential plans for huge skyscrapers to be built ruining in the city’s panorama. It also causes uproar because it was odd for a government that is always banging on about its sovereignty to give control of a huge swathe of land in central Budapest to Arab investors. And, finally because many Hungarians could see that this would be a source of governmental corruption. (The above photo is an illustration by Euronews.)

February

  • 2 February: It is the 1-year anniversary of this article where Balazs Kaufmann revealed that the then President Katalin Novak had given clemency to someone who protected a pedophile. Although she resigned shortly after this revelation, one year on she has still failed to reveal why she made this choice — Who asked her to do this? Was she pressured? Was she doing a favour in exchange for something?
  • 2 February: Tisza announces that as part of its Ludas Matyi Foundation it would be distributing free fire wood to people in deep poverty who cannot keep their homes warm during winter. Ricsi — the official campaign truck — makes its return as we hadn’t seen him since last summer.
  • 3 February: Gabor Posfai — the former CEO of Decathlon a European sports store chain — takes on the role of Chief Operating Officer within the Tisza Party.
  • 4 February: Fidesz announces that it will be putting Hungary’s biggest train stations up for tender. And the way these things go in Hungary, they will no doubt go to those close to the government. In Hungary, train stations are important hubs and the buildings are often of historic importance. They are everyone’s — and do not belong in the hands of a few oligarchs and foreign investors. Tisza announces that it will do everything in its power to stop this if Fidesz tries to quickly slip in this phoney tender (i.e. theft) before the next election.
  • 6 February: It is the 10-year anniversary of the O1G movement…which refers to when one of Orban’s former oligarchs Simicska Lajos said “Orbán egy geci” (“Orbán is an asshole”) way back in 2015 when they had a public spat. The “O1G” moniker became a shorthand way to criticise or show disdain for Orban.
  • 10 February: It is the 1-year anniversary of Peter Magyar’s Facebook post that kicked off this whole story. It was in this post that he announced his defection from Fidesz, resigning his positions and talking about how Fidesz is using its power not to govern the country but to steal its wealth. The reason this was so noteworthy, was that Peter was the Justice Minister’s ex-husband and in the thick of the Fidesz milieu — so it was not just “anyone” talking against Fidesz. This then led to a long interview on Partizan, which then led to his Talpra Magyarok! movement and eventually the Tisza Party. 
  • 11 February: Peter heads into the Partizan studio for a 1-year anniversary interview. It does not really go well, because the interviewer Marton Gulyas is very combative and aggressive. And Peter is not one to let an attack go unanswered.
  • 15 February: Tisza holds its 2025 congress in Budapest. Basically a conference where they introduce some of their policies and new people. The biggest news of the day is that Romulusz Ruszin-Szendi the former Chief of the Hungarian Defence Forces has joined Tisza. In addition, the former head of the Hungarian Olympic Committee, and the well-known activist Kriszta Bodis who founded the “Van Helyed” (“You Belong!”) foundation also sided with Tisza. All three of these people would be ruthlessly attacked by the government media.
  • 21 February: In an unfortunate turn of events Peter Magyar cancels his planned interview with one of my favourite commentators Robert Puzser. The interview was called “10 problems with Peter Magyar and what he needs to do about these if he wants to make systemic change.” Unfortunately, the government propaganda fished out something that Robert wrote years ago talking about his views on the different levels of pedophilia (e.g. acting on the urges vs not). Knowing that many people wouldn’t read Robert’s nuanced argument, Peter didn’t want to get linked in any way to this whole topic (knowing it would cost him votes) and so he cancelled. Perhaps he should have done the interview anyway and tackled any blowback, or perhaps it was smarter longer-term to pull out and not take the risk. 
  • 22 February: Orban holds his annual “year in review” address. Nothing really to report here, but it is funny that Peter happens to be playing soccer with his boys nearby and he almost has an impromptu run-in with that creep Tamas Menczer.
  • 22 February: Judges and court staff hold a protest to demand judicial independence, freedom of expression for judges and better pay.
  • 24 February: In political retribution Romulusz Ruszin-Szendi is kicked out of his role as a lecturer at the National University of Public Service.
  • 27 February: Peter heads to the city of Sorpon where there is a big brouhaha due to the closure of some childcare facilities. 

March

  • 1 March: Peter starts yet anther tour of regional Hungary. It’s incredible because even in -2 degrees on a dark weeknight thousands of people are turning out to hear him speak. In one funny anecdote (pictured above), Romulusz Ruszin-Szendi (the former head of the Hungarian military) does pushups on stage because he and Peter had run late — and in the military you do pushups as punishment if you are late. 
  • 5 March: As part of the regional tour Peter stops off in Hódmezővásárhely to eat a “Bindzsisztán” cake slice. This cake has become famous, as it is playing off the Majka song that talks about Orban’s corruption. In the video clip, the corrupt Orban character is the Prime Minister of a fictional place called Bindzsisztán. 
  • 8 March: Doctors and medical professionals protest demanding a systemic overhaul to the collapsing healthcare system in Hungary. Their claims are things like: overcrowding in hospitals, lack of doctors and nurses, outdated medical equipment and facilities, inadequate funding, growing waiting lists, and preventable deaths due to all of the above.
  • 9 March: Peter does this heartbreaking interview with a lady about how she stretches her small pension given inflation has pushed prices up significantly and her pension hasn’t increased more than a token amount in recent times.

This article is continuously updated.

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