Source: The Conversation – France in French (3)– By Renata Varga, Lecturer in information and communication sciences, University of Lille
The overwhelming victory of the Tisza party in the recent legislative elections marks a historic turning point in Hungary and the end of sixteen years of Viktor Orban’s Fidesz hegemony. This success is based on Péter Magyar’s ability to unite a heterogeneous electorate, thanks to a strategy combining grassroots mobilization, digital communication, and a mobilizing political narrative. His hybrid leadership, combining personal embodiment and programmatic credibility, has allowed him to transform an opposition dynamic into a constitutional majority.
The victory of the Tisza party (Respect and Freedom) in the legislative elections of April 12, 2026, against Viktor Orban’s Fidesz was unequivocal. Driven by a record turnout of 79.56%, Tisza obtained a constitutional majority of141 seats out of 199, while the Fidesz-KDNP alliance collapsed to 52 seats. This exceptional mandate grants him the necessary legitimacy to revise the Constitution, dismantle the illiberal system, and restore the conditions for democratic functioning based on the balance of powers.
This result is all the more remarkable because Fidesz seemed unassailable. The electoral system had been designed to favor its retention of power; the media,under its control, disseminated government propaganda, systematically denigrating the opposition; finally, with Fidesz operating in ‘party-state’ mode, public financial resources weremassively mobilized in his favor during the campaign. Conversely, Tisza, a recent formation, had no public funding.
Aggregate an anti-regime vote
This landslide victory can be explained by the timely meeting – in acontext of political and moral crisis â, between, on one hand, a strong expectation from the opposition electorate and, on the other hand, the ambition, talent, and extraordinary commitment of Péter Magyar, president of the Tisza party.
Magyar has managed, in barely two years, to buildout of nothinga party-movement and to unite a heterogeneous opposition electorate around a common objective of regime change.
This rallying took place at the cost of putting traditional ideological divides on hold. Despite an openly right-wing stance, its success is primarily due to its ability to bring together, in the context of an illiberal regime, voters with diverse orientations, including from the left, while refusing any alliance with former opposition parties. A strategic choice that proved to be rewarding.
Beyond this momentum, Magyar succeeded in enrolling citizens eager for change and ready to build a true “Tisza community” into his political transformation project, with 50,000 locally established volunteer activists. He also surrounded himself with an excellent campaign team.
An intense fieldwork
Peter Magyar’s main strength lies in his ability to mobilize and occupy public space. For nearly two years, he traveled across the country, multiplying trips and local meetings. He went to seek votes both in large cities and rural areas, including in the historic strongholds of Fidesz, without hesitation to expose himself in hostile contexts.
The old flatbed van from Tisza, a Ford Transit customized with spray paint in national colors on which he used to jump to deliver his speeches in villages, has become legendary. This continuous presence and his accessibility allowed him to build aclose relationshipwith the electorate.
The intensity of his work is measured byfrequency of his meetings at the end of the campaign. During the last month, he held 108 of them, including 27 in the five days preceding the election, reaching up to seven events per day – some starting as early as 7 a.m.
Effective digital strategy
The presence on the ground of Magyar was amplified by aintensive use of social networks, the other pillar of his communication strategy. Mastering the codes specific to these platforms, he addressed differentiated audiences effectively, notably young people.
Magyar mainly relied on its official accounts, particularly onhis Facebook accountA – a largely dominant network in Hungary – which he himself managed.His/Her YouTube channelcentralized its video content, frequently using live formats. At the same time,his activity on TikTokaimed to reach a young audience and to build a more informal image, close to the codes of influencers; some of its videos there haveexceeded one million views.
The live broadcasting of his meetings allowed viewers to see, in real time, the scale of the mobilization and the enthusiasm generated by the movement. This increased visibility strengthened the activist momentum, helping to transform a local presence into a political phenomenon of national scope.
This digital strategy proved to be remarkably effective. Magyar established itself as the most active player in the online political landscape during the two years preceding the election. This facilitated the mobilization of Tisza’s supporters, whose activity developed in a largely organic manner, with a very high level of interactions and engagement.
A unifying symbolic narrative
Coming from the ranks of Fidesz, Magyar masters the codes and mechanisms of his opponents’ communication, which he focused on turning against them during his campaign. He also developed a powerful symbolic narrative, capable of competing with the dominant narrative.
His speech largely relies on a strategic use of metaphors, borrowing from varied registers to denounce the political and moral failings of representatives of power. Orban has thus been described as “Don Corleone,” “old emperor,” or even “a strange master of the Carmelite palace [who] struts around his domain worth ten billion forints.”the forint is the Hungarian national currency, ed.), so many images intended to strike the mind and desacralize the figure of power.
The use of Hungarian folklore constitutes a central element of his narrative. He mobilizes the figure of Döbrögi, a cruel and greedy feudal lord, to embody a predatory elite that oppresses the people. In contrast, he identified with Lúdas Matyi, the clever young shepherd who ultimately triumphs over injustice.
Like Orban, Magyar draws from collective memory to structure his speech. However, whereas Orban constructs a narrative based on threat, fear, and the defense of a besieged sovereignty, Magyar offers a narration oriented towards hope and the future. This opposition is also reflected in the architectural symbolism where citizens are described as builders rather than soldiers. The political transformation is presented as a collective, progressive process, but also as a powerful and inevitable movement.
A hybrid leadership
The strength of Magyar lies in the hybrid nature of its leadership. Its movement was initially built around strong centralization and an assumed personalization of politics: for many months, its campaign took the form of a true one-man show, making him the very embodiment of the Tisza party, to the point where his image became inseparable from it.
However, this personalization was not limited to the posture of a charismatic leader. Magyar was able to add political and institutional credibility, establishing himself as a figure of authority and presenting himself as a statesman in the making. Alongside his symbolic narrative, he grounded his campaign in the concrete realities of the country, highlighting the dysfunctions affecting the daily lives of Hungarians.
His field visits played a central role in this strategy. During the heatwave, he went to hospitals, thermometer in hand, to denounce the working conditions of healthcare staff and the catastrophic state of the health system. In the middle of winter, he distributed firewood to the most vulnerable populations. He also increased visits to orphanages in order to draw attention to the failures of child protection, despite it being established as a priority by the Fidesz government.
This dual register – symbolic and pragmatic – is one of the keys to his success. On the one hand, Magyar projects a collective imagination based on justice and reconstruction; on the other, he offers a structured political platform, developed with the support of experts and formalized in a detailed program, which helped to reassure. Thus, Tisza’s victory can be explained by Péter Magyar’s communicative skill and his ability to articulate personal embodiment, grounding in reality, and collective projection – symbolic of a happy and peaceful Hungary.
Political action and popularity
The day after the April 12 elections, Magyar set to work tirelessly: international press conferences, aggressive interviews in pro-Fidesz media, exchanges with foreign leaders, negotiations to unlock European funds, and forming the future government. At the same time, he multiplied symbolic gestures of rupture: the inaugural session of the National Assembly and his assumption of office were set for May 9, Europe Day, marked by the symbolic return of the European flag to Parliament.
His strategic use of social networks – with his 1.4 million followers on Facebook – remains crucial before his official assumption of office. Juggling several leadership figures, he skillfully alternates tones. He mixes political announcements and pressure on the outgoing power, with calls for the resignation of the President of the Republic and other key figures, as well as warnings about the massive destruction of documents in ministries and the transfer of funds abroad by oligarchs close to Orban.
He also shares more personal content, like a selfie at the gym to encourage citizens to engage in physical activity as summer approaches. Finally, he excels in viral humor: during an official visit to the Sándor Palace, spotting Orban on an adjacent balcony, he mimics aiconic gesture of Martin Scorseseand titles the video“Absolute Cinema”, creating a meme that instantly became iconic.
Ten days after the vote, a survey by the Medián Institute reveals a significant lead for Tisza over Fidesz: a gap of 40 points, confirming the popularity of Magyar, the trust given to the Tisza party, and the extent of the political shift in Hungary.
Renata Varga does not work for, advise, hold shares in, receive funds from any organization that could benefit from this article, and has declared no other affiliation than her research organization.
–ref. Hungary: the keys to Péter Magyar’s electoral triumph –https://theconversation.com/hungary-the-keys-to-the-electoral-triumph-of-peter-magyar-281822