The ex-wife of Hungary’s opposition leader Péter Magyar has repeated accusations of domestic violence and blackmail against her former husband after a court hearing in Budapest.
Judit Varga was the justice minister of Hungary for years and a close ally of Viktor Orbán. After their divorce, her ex-husband founded the opposition party Tisza, which is now leading Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz in polls ahead of crucial parliamentary elections next year.
Judit Varga was summoned to a court hearing as a witness in Budapest on Thursday related to a bribery case in her ministry, in which her former deputy is an accused. After the hearing, when she was asked whether she might make a possible comeback to public life, she lashed out at Péter Magyar to reporters.
“I don’t want to run in this competition if a thing called Péter Magyar is in the running,” Varga said.
She went on to reprise accusations that she had previously levelled against her ex-husband a year and a half ago.
“Betrayal is not an achievement, especially not if it’s a betrayal of our own family,” she added.
She referred to a voice file that was secretly recorded by Magyar back in 2003 when Varga was still the Minister of Justice in Viktor Orbán’s government. On this voice file, Varga and Magyar can be heard in a private conversation, in which Varga referred to government interference in a court case, and Varga suggests a minister put pressure on prosecutors to delete sensitive lines from a document. Magyar released the recordings after founding the opposition Tisza party in 2024.
Judit Varga speaks about blackmail, Magyar claims its government’s deception
“”What kind of person is this? When his wife can no longer bear the incredible drama and abuse she is living through and announces that she wants a divorce, he uses this vile manipulation. And while he is crying and begging, alternately terrorizing her that he can’t divorce her, he starts blackmailing her,” Varga said.
Hungarian pro-government politicians and media have slammed Magyar for taping private conversations with his wife. As the election campaign proper gets underway, Magyar is coming under more pressure. On social media, government politicians and media personalities echoed solidarity with Varga.
Péter Magyar has consistently denied claims of domestic violence over the past one-and-a-half years and was quick to react to the accusations of his ex in social media posts.
“Neither now, nor in the future, do I wish to react to the accusations of this repeated propaganda. I wish that my former wife lived peacefully,” he said, adding that the content of the voice files he recorded with his then-wife was clear.
“With such a scandal in a real democracy, with genuine rule of law, the government would fail, and ministers would be detained. This will still happen eventually, but with a bit of delay,” Magyar said, touting his potential election victory next year.
Magyar later posted again claiming that the government was aiming to deflect attention from government members avoiding being jailed. “That’s why they tried to drag the court hearing into the bog of lying tabloids again,” Magyar added.
Bitter divorce in the political spotlight
Judit Varga and Péter Magyar divorced in 2023, and shortly afterwards, Varga resigned as justice minister in the wake of the infamous amnesty scandal. In this, a man who helped to cover up a paedophile crime in an orphanage received a presidential pardon, countersigned by Varga as Minister of Justice. The scandal badly damaged the government’s reputation, and soon after, Péter Magyar founded his opposition party Tisza. According to recent opinion polls, Tisza could be in the lead ahead of Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz, if elections were held now.
Political analyst Szabolcs Dull said Varga’s remarks reinforced the government’s narrative against Péter Magyar.
“By speaking about Péter Magyar, and calling him a creature who abused her mentally, this is strengthening the government’s narrative. Judit Varga managed to divert the narrative that ministers had already been questioned in the court case and she managed to divert the narrative to the level of her relationship with Péter Magyar. Judit Varga’s speech was useful for Fidesz,” he said.
Szabolcs Dull added that even if Varga doesn’t return to Hungarian politics, she could prove useful to the government in the election campaign against Péter Magyar.
