Unprecedented challenge for Viktor Orban: “Magyar fever” has taken the face of Hungary’s opposition parties

Ervin Nagy, a popular Hungarian actor, left the stage and the film studios to take to the streets. Like thousands of other people, he is gripped by “Magyar Fever”, named after the dissident who opposes Viktor Orban, notes France Presse.

On Sunday, a month before European elections, he will attend a major rally in the eastern city of Debrecen, a stronghold of the prime minister’s nationalist Fidesz party.

Since Peter Magyar, a former high-ranking official who rebelled against power, came to the fore on the political scene in February, 47-year-old actor Ervin Nagy has joined him in the fight for “renewal” in Hungary.

He even made available his flatbed truck from which Magyar spontaneously addressed the crowd one evening. “We didn’t have time to find a podium,” Ervin Nagy told AFP. “It had the air of the 1956 revolution,” he enthused, referring to the Hungarian revolution against Soviet power.

An unprecedented challenge for Viktor Orban

Never since Viktor Orban’s return to power in 2010 has Hungary known such a protest movement, according to experts, who see this situation as an unprecedented challenge for the leader.

After the scandal caused by the pardon granted to a man convicted in a pedophilia case, Peter Magyar used the resulting popular anger to draw tens of thousands of people to the streets of Budapest.

“Apathetic and frustrated” by an inflexible government, “they were suddenly boosted by the arrival of this sensitive and daring man,” says the actor.

Although he had previously supported the teachers’ cause, he had no political ambitions until Peter Magyar contacted him. “I was convinced in an hour,” he recalls.

“Magyar fever” has taken over the opposition parties in Hungary

In just three months, this new opposition figure has taken on the existing parties with a conservative speech blaming the corruption he says is destroying the country.

His movement Tisza (Tisztelet és Szabadság – Respect and Freedom), which declares itself “neither left nor right”, is currently credited with 25% of voting intentions among voters, according to a recent survey conducted by the Median Institute on a sample of 1,000 people, before the European elections on June 9.

His supporters believe that his strength is that he knows the system inside out. A highly experienced diplomat in Brussels, the charismatic 43-year-old lawyer was also the husband of former justice minister Judit Varga, with whom he has three children.

Massive power campaign against the new opposition figure

Although Viktor Orban downplayed the emergence of this rival, his party “is working hard to suppress this wave of protests,” analyst Zoltan Lakner told AFP.

Posters labeling him a “servant of Brussels” have appeared across the country, while pro-government newspapers have published dozens of articles attacking his reputation, from allegations of domestic violence – which he vehemently denies firmness – down to the remarks about “his wife’s sunglasses”.

A new watchdog, set up to prevent “foreign interference” in the electoral process, has also launched an investigation into him.

Hungary became “a kind of mini-dictatorship

“If Magyar manages to unite opposition voters,” who are currently fragmented into several parties with little influence, then he could pose a real danger to those in power, according to the political scientist.

Others see the movement as short-lived and unable to destabilize the solid system put in place by Viktor Orban over 14 years, including a formidable propaganda machine.

Undeterred, Peter Magyar embarked a few weeks ago on a tour of Hungary’s provinces to gather votes, and his visit to Debrecen will allow him to test his popularity.

On stage, he will be surrounded by a number of Hungarian celebrities “brave enough” to appear with him, points out Ervin Nagy, who claims he was “blacklisted” for once daring to criticize a member of Fidesz.

Hungary became “a kind of mini-dictatorship. I don’t beat you to death, but if you speak against the authorities, there will be consequences,” the actor added.