Former insider vows to challenge Orban ‘power factory’ in Hungary

Largely unknown to the public until recently, former government insider Peter Magyar has burst onto the political scene in Hungary, vowing to challenge the ‘power factory’ of veteran nationalist premier Viktor Orban.

Magyar, who says he became increasingly disillusioned with the ruling party’s inner workings the more he saw, managed to gather tens of thousands at a rally last week. He denounced Orban and his allies, accusing them of corruption.

Some opposition voters are hoping he may be able to bring down a system firmly under the control of the EU’s longestserving leader.

The 43-year-old met AFP in a central Budapest cafe, wearing his signature white shirt and tie.

Under Orban, he said, “there are just slogans used like mantras, and it is all designed to control people and make popular decisions, while in the background they distribute, pass over the national wealth into private hands”.

Magyar is hoping he can bring change by founding a new centrist party in the central European country – judged the EU’s most corrupt by Transparency International.

He says he wants to expose past wrongdoings of government officials in what he describes as the ‘power factory’ built by Orban.

A lawyer by training, Magyar has long been in the orbit of the ruling Fidesz party.

Since 2010, he worked in the background for Orban’s government as a Brussels-based diplomat dealing with EU matters. Later he became CEO of state-owned student loan provider Diakhitel Kozpont.

“I was always critical internally... But as we went increasingly deeper, the system became more and more horrifying,” said Magyar, whose ex-wife is Fidesz member and former justice minister Judit Varga.

Magyar broke cover last month following the political row over a child abuse pardon scandal.

Orban ally Katalin Novak resigned as president in February after it was revealed she had pardoned a convicted child abuser’s accomplice. Varga too announced she was leaving public life.

It was the most serious crisis of Orban’s 14-year premiership.