And come what may, Magyar remained laser-focused in his campaigning on bread-and-butter issues while hammering Fidesz over corruption, noting how Orbán’s family, business cronies and inner circle have grown ever richer as ordinary Hungarians have just got poorer.
What really concerned voters — inflation, economic malaise and endemic corruption — all remained front and center in Magyar’s campaign, according to Mátyás Bódi, an election geographer affiliated with Budapest’s Eötvös Loránd University. And they played well for him, explained Bódi, who analyzed raw local polling data from independent pollsters throughout the election campaign.
“What drove Orbán’s defeat was the cost of living, lack of economic opportunities and lack of jobs,” Bódi added. Magyar’s messaging about poor public services also resonated. “A key Magyar message was that the country just isn’t working. And if you look at health care, transportation, the education system, for ordinary people the average experience has been one of disrepair and increasing dysfunction.”
Capitalizing on voter frustration, Magyar’s promises to build a “modern, European Hungary” appealed not only to young voters but also to middle-aged male blue collar workers, an important segment of Fidesz’s own traditional electoral base, Bódi said.
In fact, the 45-year-old Magyar sounded a lot like Orbán did in 2010, when he campaigned with similar fervor on economic issues and pledged to improve the lot of ordinary Hungarians, according to Péter Molnár, a Hungarian academic who was a Fidesz lawmaker but quit in 1994 when Orbán dragged the party over to nativist illiberalism.
Disciplined campaigner
While Orbán campaigned on the risks of being sucked into the conflict in Ukraine and portrayed his challenger as a stooge of both Zelenskyy and the EU, Magyar remained unfazed, defying all efforts to goad him.