What Péter Magyar learned from the last guy to lose to Viktor Orbán – POLITICO

HÓDMEZŐVÁSÁRHELY, Hungary — When opposition leader Péter Márki-Zay failed to topple Prime Minister Viktor Orbán in the country’s 2022 election, many Hungarians said the result showed only an insider could win, using the hardball tactics of the ruling Fidesz party.

Péter Magyar, who leads the polls ahead of Sunday’s election, is exactly such a candidate — a Fidesz veteran who was married to Orbán’s former justice minister and understands how to play the prime minister at his own game.

Márki-Zay is not a fan of Magyar’s personality — viewing him as “arrogant” and “self-centered” — but praises his cold-blooded political acumen and his ability to draw critical lessons from the opposition’s failure in 2022.