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Péter Magyar has worked so hard to avoid being labelled a “Brussels puppet” by his rival Viktor Orbán that he’s barely been seen in Brussels at all.
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The leader of Tisza, Hungary’s main opposition party, has largely treated his MEP role as a platform to confront the country’s current Prime Minister and boost his campaign in Budapest ahead of the April 12 elections.
Yet, since he was elected an MEP in 2024, Magyar never drafted any parliamentary report; he signed only one resolution in a chamber that produces dozens each month, and, according to many colleagues, rarely attended committee sessions.
Magyar’s last appearance was in Strasbourg in January, when he voted in favour of referring the EU-Mercosur trade deal to the Court of Justice.
“It appears that his participation in plenary votes is indeed rather low, around 21% since the beginning of the term,” said Doru Frantescu, an analyst from the EU Matrix, a think tank that provides insights and data on the EU institutions. “This means that he focused on internal politics not only recently, but even before.”
The MEP on a Mission
This reflects a clear mission: from the outset, Magyar has prioritised unseating Orbán after 16 years of largely unchallenged rule.
To that end, the European Parliament has functioned as a springboard for his campaign launch, granting him immunity while also enabling him to forge alliances ahead of the crucial vote.
This momentum was already evident in the June 2024 European elections when Magyar captured 30 % of the votes with a party founded a few months before. Soon after, the European People’s Party embraced Tisza’s seven MEPs, bringing them into the continent’s largest political bloc.
With polls suggesting he is on track to win, Magyar’s campaign has intensified in recent months, forcing him to focus on rallies and campaign events in Hungary rather than in Brussels.
In addition, Magyar is far from alone – many MEPs have historically used the European Parliament to advance national campaigns. In his case, however, a vast majority of MEPs support Magyar as the best alternative to Orbán, who has become Brussels’ nemesis, blocking key EU files with his vetoes.
Against this backdrop, the Parliament has helped Magyar raise his political profile both at home and abroad.
The only clash between Orban and him took place in the Strasbourg plenary during Hungary’s EU Council presidency, In October 2024. Following Orban’s customary address to MEPs, Magyar took the floor to accuse him of turning Hungary into the EU’s poorest and most corrupt member state.
The exchange did not end there. Magyar later approached Orbán, and the two men shook hands—a photo that quickly went viral, casting Magyar in a favourable light as he appeared energetic next to Orbán.
Yet an MEP’s role is meant to balance European and national responsibilities, a balance that has shifted in recent years as many MEPs spend more time in Brussels and take a more active role in shaping EU policies.
After all, the Treaties clearly define MEP’s duties as playing a “key role in shaping EU rules as they amend and vote on legislative proposals put forward by the European Commission and negotiate the final text with the Council representing EU countries.”
A lawyer by profession, Magyar was appointed member of two influential committees – Constitutional Affairs (AFCO) and Agriculture and Rural Development (AGRI). Yet, he has not been involved in any report drafted by these committees.
He has signed just one resolution—on women’s rights in Iraq—and submitted a single written question to the Commission regarding land confiscation practices tied to the historic Beneš decrees in Slovakia, affecting Hungarian minorities.
“I have not much to say, as I have never seen him,” one MEP who sits in a committee with Magyar told Euronews. Another one confirmed that Magyar’s work at committee level “has been greatly missed,” because of his campaign commitments in Hungary.
Contacted by Euronews, many members of Tisza declined to comment on Magyar’s work in the parliament due to the political sensitivity surrounding the Hungarian elections. Others, however, argue that Magyar’s opposition to Orbán places him in an unprecedented position compared with other MEPs.
“This is not a routine campaign, it’s a system-defining election where Hungary’s very EU membership is at stake, and it demands Péter Magyar’s full attention,” a Parliament official close to the Tisza Party told Euronews, claiming that physical absence from Brussels does not mean disengagement.
“He remains fully involved in all key decisions. When high-stakes choices arise, particularly on voting positions, he often joins discussions directly,” the official said.
Another official said that without his parliamentary immunity, “he would have had problems getting to this point.” Hungarian authorities requested Magyar’s immunity to be lifted in three different legal cases, but the Parliament rejected the requests by a large majority.
Within the EPP, Magyar’s absence is noticed but generally accepted.
“He never participates in the group meetings,” an EPP official told Euronews, adding that it was mostly Zoltán Tarr, the head of Tisza’s delegation in the Parliament who represents the party in all the group’s political discussions in Brussels or Strasbourg.
EPP officials acknowledge that the group’s leadership has tolerated Magyar’s limited involvement in group activities, viewing support for an EPP party’s electoral success in Hungary as a higher priority.
Walking a tightrope in Brussels
While Tisza is seen as more pro-European than Orbán’s Fidesz, Magyar has been careful to avoid political positioning in Brussels that might be unpopular at home, seeking to counter Orbán’s narrative of him as a “Brussels puppet.”
Orbán has accused Tisza of representing the EU’s and Ukraine’s interests, a claim that Magyar rejects.
For Tisza, Ukraine’s potential accession to the EU is a particularly sensitive issue: although it is supported by most of the European Parliament, including the EPP, many of its voters remain sceptical.
A similar tension exists regarding the EU and the EPP’s commitment to increasing support for Ukraine. In February 2026, Tisza MEPs voted against the EU’s proposed €90 billion loan to Ukraine, aligning with Orbán’s decision to veto it.
“Tisza’s margin of maneuver is limited. Having a diametrically opposite position to that of Fidesz would not be popular among a large part of the electorate,” Frantescu said. “They have to carefully balance between the position of the EPP and that of the current public opinion back home.”
On issues like migration and the environment, Tisza acts as a bridge, largely aligning with its European political family while maintaining proximity to Fidesz’s stance.
“EU and Hungary need a strong external border protection and we should fight together against illegal migration. I do not agree with the redistribution of asylum seekers across Europe,” Magyar told Euronews in an interview in October 2024, a few months after his election as MEP.
At times, efforts to appeal to the Hungarian electorate have created friction between Tisza and other parties within the EPP group.
Tisza has defied the EPP group’s stance three times recently, prompting internal sanctions. Its MEPs voted against the EU-Mercosur trade deal, citing the need to defend Hungarian farmers’ interests, a move that led Tisza’s lawmakers to be banned from speaking at plenary sessions for six-month.
Another sensitive issue is Tisza’s effort to distance itself from EPP chair Manfred Weber and Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, both depicted negatively by the Hungarian government and frequently shown alongside Magyar in Fidesz’s campaign posters.
This positioning is reflected in its parliamentary behaviour: Tisza MEPs did not support von der Leyen in the last vote of confidence in January, a move widely seen as intentional.
“We are thankful for the confirmation from Brussels that Tisza politicians have no owners,” Magyar wrote on Facebook at the time, signalling that his commitment to EPP and EU principles has consistently been secondary to domestic opinion.
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