Péter Magyar, leader of Hungary’s Europhile Tisza Party and a member of the centrist-liberal European People’s Party, talks broadly about ending alleged corruption in Budapest and restoring freedoms so that “everyone can live in peace.”
Yet his critics say the actions he would undertake as prime minister would actually result in conservatives having their freedoms restricted.
Magyar is hoping to replace Viktor Orbán in elections that are taking place in April. He has declared that if this is the case, his government will extradite Zbigniew Ziobro, a key figure of Warsaw’s former conservative Law and Justice (PiS) government who is being targeted as part of leftist Polish PM Donald Tusk’s pursuit of his rivals, “on the first day.”
The accusations levelled against Ziobro, which could land him in prison for up to 25 years, have been dismissed as “the terror of political revenge”—hence why Orbán’s team last month granted him international protection and political asylum in Hungary.
Unsurprisingly, Magyar’s announcement followed his recent meeting with Tusk. It serves as an early indication that he would adopt the Tusk playbook on how to deal with political rivals.
Responding, Ziobro said on Monday that a Magyar victory “would mean a Moscow-style scenario for Hungary: internet censorship, repression of the opposition, the end of independent courts,” adding:
However, Hungarians are too smart and proud to entrust you with power and hand over their sovereignty, wallets, and freedom into the clutches of Brussels.
Panie @magyarpeterMP – to Pańskie zwycięstwo oznaczałoby dla Węgier moskiewski scenariusz: cenzura internetu, represje opozycji, koniec niezależnych sądów.
Ale Bruksela nie dała rady, obalić premiera Orbána, więc Węgrzy mają sieć bez lewackiej cenzury, szkoły wolne od… pic.twitter.com/1RvDVOPPku
Marcin Romanowski, a former Polish conservative deputy justice minister who was likewise granted asylum in Hungary before later having a European Arrest Warrant lifted by a Warsaw court, also jibed that Magyar seems “to be overdosing on the ‘white powder’ of a warped imagination.” Romanowski may have phrased what he said also as an allusion to the drug scandal Magyar has been embroiled in.
Indeed, as one of Ziobro’s lawyers helpfully pointed out, “the decision on extradition in Hungary is made by a court, not by a politician.”
Michael Curzon is a news writer for europeanconservative.com based in England’s Midlands. He is also Editor of Bournbrook Magazine, which he founded in 2019, and previously wrote for London’s Express Online. His Twitter handle is @MichaelCurzon_.
