Péter Magyar, the main challenger to Hungary’s right-wing leader, Viktor Orban, in the country’s upcoming elections has said he believes pro-government figures are planning to release a recording of the opposition leader in “an intimate situation” with a former partner.
Magyar, who heads Hungary’s center-right Tisza party and is a former Orban ally, claimed reporters had been sent a link showing a room with a camera.
The opposition leader said he suspected Orban supporters “are planning to release a recording, possibly falsified, made with secret service equipment, showing my then girlfriend and me in an intimate situation.”
Magyar said Wednesday would mark the second anniversary of an explosive interview he gave in February 2024, during which he accused Orban officials of corruption and wielding smear campaigns to tear down political opponents.
Referring to Orban’s populist nationalist party, Magyar said in a post to social media on Tuesday: “This is obviously a symbolic day for Fidesz as well, because it was then that their seemingly unshakeable power began to crumble. They are preparing for it. Not in the way normal people would, by facing up to it and apologizing, but rather with blackmail and threats.”
“It seems that on the anniversary they will launch a Russian-style campaign that was previously considered unimaginable,” Magyar added.
Newsweek has reached out to Orban’s office for comment via email.
Magyar’s popularity has surged to place him as Orban’s most significant challenger in years ahead of Hungary’s parliamentary elections in April. Opinions polls have put Tisza up to 12 points ahead of Fidesz.
U.S. President Donald Trump has thrown his weight behind Orban, a politician seen by many as a thorn in the side of European unity who has sought to crack down on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights and civil liberties. European Parliament politicians have decried “persistent breaches of the rule of law” in Hungary and “continuous breaches of E.U. [European Union] values.”
Trump described Orban as a “true friend, fighter, and WINNER,” backing the incumbent for the spring elections earlier this month. Trump said relations between Budapest and Washington had “reached new heights of cooperation and spectacular achievement under my administration” and attributed this to Orban.
The White House laid out in its new National Security Strategy, published late last year, that it supported “unapologetic celebrations of European nations’ individual character and history,” adding: “America encourages its political allies in Europe to promote this revival of spirit, and the growing influence of patriotic European parties indeed gives cause for great optimism.”
Magyar has pointedly criticized the Orban government’s closeness with the Kremlin and called for “pragmatic” relations with Russia and close ties to the E.U. and NATO.
In a message directed to what Magyar termed “fearful Fidesz supporters,” the opposition leader said: “Bring it on, falsify whatever you want, I will not give in to blackmail or threats. Neither from the Hungarian political-economic mafia, nor from the members of the international network that supports them.”
“Yes, I am a 45-year-old man, and I have a sex life. With an adult partner,” Magyar said. “I have three minor children, whom this despicable ‘family-friendly’ authority obviously disregards.”
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