Re: pragmatism between the new Hungarian government and Russia - I missed this RIA op-ed on Friday, reacting to Magyar's announcement that the new government would audit Rosatom's Paks II project, with a not-so-subtle warning at the end.
ria.ru/20260417/ros...
ngl these seem to have aged better than my hypothetical 2005 playlist would have
The count as of today is 141 for Tisza and it can still climb further: Péter Magyar is demanding the election to be annulled in a SMD in Vas County where a Fidesz candidate won by a hair's breadth after an "independent" candidate who happens to be called Péter Magyar scored hundreds of votes.
The count as of today is 141 for Tisza and it can still climb further: Péter Magyar is demanding the election to be annulled in a SMD in Vas County where a Fidesz candidate won by a hair's breadth after an "independent" candidate who happens to be called Péter Magyar scored hundreds of votes.
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As of tonight CET, embassy votes have already turned around 3 seats in favor of Tisza and the count is not over yet. According to the current count, Tisza will have at least 140 out of 199 mandates.
As embassy votes are counted in Hungary, they have already resulted in Tisza winning an additional SMD - and may still give seats to the party. Here are the results of an exit poll conducted by Magyar Vándor in 10 countries among embassy voters.
www.magyarvandor.com/exitpoll26/?...
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You need to consider though that Orbán & his US allies put up a huge operation to convince their own supporters that they were winning. Even a large part of their leading talking heads drank the Kool-Aid. The most popular kind of content over the past days have been videos of them finding out
This always happens when a new reality sets in, which cannot be rejected. People will adjust their behavior while justifying by saying that they are actually doing the same thing as before.
(Ofc one must acknowledge that on migration specifically, Magyar has views very similar to Orbán's.)
I agree.
My favorite Schadenfreude moment from the Hungarian election: bookstore chain Líra, which Orbán's government tried to fine because of its active non-compliance with the government's homophobic law, apparrently moved all books about Orbán & Fidesz into the "History" section.
444.hu/2026/04/14/a...
Apart from this, Magyar also thrashed the public broadcaster in a radio and a TV interview, recounting the lies they broadcasted and adding that "the factory of lies" would be closed, and waved at Orbán, reading on the terrace of his office, from the terrace of the office of the Head of State.
Re:#6, remember also Judit Varga, the former justice minister, of pedophile enabler pardon scandal fame, and ex-wife of Péter Magyar.
We're really a nation of everymen. Márki-Zay was just never going to make it with that name.
Topping the rankings though...
🥉
According to Wikipedia, it's the 82nd most common surname. Magyar is the 35th with roughly twice this many people.
It's a great reminder of the complexity of Russian regional politics that one of the two governors who got somewhat famous for erecting Stalin statues recently is a holdout against the Kremlin, relying on local elites; the other one is an ultranationalist Kremlin creation disliked by local elites.
Magyar perhaps thinks he has to say this, but there's a clear contradiction between (justifiably) dismissing the Benes Decrees as unacceptable "things that belong to the past", but at the same time saying that displays of Greater Hungary maps are unproblematic because "we are proud of our history".
That's how I have interpreted Magyar's words (adherence to December deal, why reopen it now) and that's what I would expect his government to do, but he did not state openly that he would remove the block.
Speaking about the TurkStream case, Magyar doesn't rule out that there is a real threat, but calls Orbán's reaction a charade, which, he says, was so clumsily staged that even Serbian authorities did not full-throatedly support the narrative. Gives a shoutout to Serbian protesters but "won't meddle"
Answering a question about whether Russia is a security risk, Magyar says "yes", adding that he is not talking about ordinary Russians or Russian culture, but the authoritarian Russian state, recounting previous Russian incursions into Hungary, both military and cyber, singling out Szíjjártó too.
Answering a question about whether Russia is a security risk, Magyar says "yes", adding that he is not talking about ordinary Russians or Russian culture, but the authoritarian Russian state, recounting previous Russian incursions into Hungary, both military and cyber, singling out Szíjjártó too.
Magyar says he won't call Trump but will take his call if Trump wants to speak (same as he said about Putin). He also defends Vance's visit to Hungary, saying that Vance was free to express his preference. He adds that he thinks both Russia & the Trump admin have now cut off support to Orbán.
Bloomberg presses Magyar on Hungary blocking the 90-bn-euro loan to Ukraine; he repeats that he regards the deal done as it was in December 2025 and eventually removing the block a "technical decision", which he will discuss with EU leaders.
Magyar says everyone in HU knows that UA is the victim of the war and he'll be straightforward about it. He says, pointing at Fidesz, that suggesting Ukraine should give up territory is "treasonous" as it questions the right of nations to defend themselves. He does stress language/cultural rights.
Re: Ukraine, Magyar says he'll try to be friends & allies with *every* country around HU, carefully avoiding specifically mentioning Ukraine, especially given Hungarian-speaking populations, criticizing Orbán for using them for political purposes.
Magyar says everyone in HU knows that UA is the victim of the war and he'll be straightforward about it. He says, pointing at Fidesz, that suggesting Ukraine should give up territory is "treasonous" as it questions the right of nations to defend themselves. He does stress language/cultural rights.
Re: Ukraine, Magyar says he'll try to be friends & allies with *every* country around HU, carefully avoiding specifically mentioning Ukraine, especially given Hungarian-speaking populations, criticizing Orbán for using them for political purposes.
Magyar welcomes Peskov "respecting" the results of the vote, confirms that he wants to be pragmatic as "geography cannot be changed" and he will "take calls" from Putin, although won't call him himself. He'd tell Putin to stop murdering people if they talked. Paks 2 & other deals will be audited.
