BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Hungarian opposition leader Péter Magyar spent most of his professional life moving comfortably within the political world built by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. Now, with pivotal elections approaching Sunday and Orbán trailing in most polls, Magyar could become the former insider who brings that system down.
The 45-year-old lawyer and leader of the opposition Tisza party has charted a meteoric political rise since bursting into public view in early 2024. In just two years, he has galvanized large numbers of voters across Hungary who see him as the most credible challenger yet to Orbán’s 16-year grip on power.
Before emerging as the prime minister’s most prominent and effective critic, Magyar spent years inside the governing elite. A member of Orbán’s nationalist-populist Fidesz party since 2002, he moved easily within its political ecosystem, holding senior posts at state-run institutions and rubbing elbows with figures at the center of power.
With two days until the vote, most polls place Tisza with a double-digit lead over Fidesz — a feat no opposition force has achieved since Orbán returned to power in 2010. While some of Magyar’s supporters are wary of his former ties to the ruling party, others believe only someone who has seen Orbán’s system from the inside can bring it down.
Born in 1981, Magyar has described himself as drawn to politics from an early age. As a child growing up during the final years of communist rule, he admired Orbán and his circle of young liberal democrats who were challenging Soviet domination at the end of the Cold War.
Magyar has said he watched parliamentary debates on television while still in grade school and attended political demonstrations with his parents. Immersed in conservative politics, Magyar joined Fidesz in 2002 at the age of 21, and formed friendships with other rising figures in the party including Gergely Gulyás, who would later become Orbán’s chief of staff.
After graduating with a law degree from a Catholic university in 2003, Magyar began working as a lawyer. In 2006, while Fidesz was in opposition, he provided pro bono legal representation to anti-government demonstrators arrested during violent protests against the then-Socialist government.
That same year, he married fellow lawyer Judit Varga, who would later become one of Orbán’s most prominent ministers. The couple moved to Brussels in 2009, where Varga worked advising a Hungarian member of the European Parliament.
During their years abroad, alongside a stint as a stay-at-home father for their three children, Magyar worked for Hungary's Foreign Ministry and as a diplomat with its permanent representation to the European Union.
After returning to Hungary with his family in 2018, Magyar moved into leadership roles at several state-affiliated institutions. Meanwhile, Varga’s star was rising within Fidesz, and she was appointed justice minister in 2019. Alongside Katalin Novák, an Orbán ally who in 2022 became Hungary’s youngest president and the first woman to hold the office, Varga was widely seen as a possible successor to Orbán.
But a political scandal in 2024 was soon to change Magyar’s personal and political trajectory, and fundamentally transform Hungarian politics.
After returning from Brussels, Magyar's relationship with Varga deteriorated, and the couple divorced in 2023.
The following year, Varga was implicated in a scandal that rocked Hungary when it emerged that President Novák had granted a pardon to a convicted accomplice in a child sexual abuse case. The decision shocked the country and led to Novák's resignation, while Varga, who had endorsed the pardon, also stepped down.
The next day, Magyar gave a lengthy interview to the popular Hungarian YouTube channel Partizán in which he publicly broke with Fidesz, accusing Orbán’s government of systemic corruption and operating in the interests of a small circle of political and economic elites.
The interview quickly went viral, drawing more than 2 million views in a country of fewer than 10 million, and transformed Magyar from a relatively obscure insider into a national political figure overnight.
In the weeks that followed, he intensified his criticism of the government and began organizing public events. On March 15, Hungary’s national holiday, he addressed thousands of supporters in Budapest and announced plans to launch a new political movement that would later become the Tisza party.
In June that year, Tisza won 30% of the vote in European Parliament elections, and Magyar became an EU lawmaker.
Not long after his break with the government, Varga accused Magyar of abusive behavior during their marriage. Magyar has denied the allegations, saying they were part of a political campaign to discredit him after he turned against the ruling party.
In interviews since entering politics, Magyar has portrayed himself as someone who often voiced dissent even while working within the Fidesz system, saying he regularly expressed criticism and pushed for internal debate.
His rise has energized a broad segment of Hungarian society that, disenchanted with previous generations of fragmented and ineffectual opposition parties, has long sought a viable alternative to Orbán.
Further, while Orbán has campaigned on a myriad external threats facing Hungary, like the war in neighboring Ukraine, Magyar has focused on bread-and-butter issues that affect ordinary Hungarians: inflation, low wages, the deterioration of public health care and transportation, and endemic corruption.
While Magyar has succeeded in mobilizing Orbán critics from across the political spectrum, support for him is not always rooted in ideological alignment. Some liberal voters remain wary of his combative style and conservative views.
Hoping to avoid mistakes by previous opposition leaders who gave Fidesz ammunition for attacks, Magyar has carefully avoided taking firm positions on a number of divisive issues like Orbán's anti-LGBTQ+ policies and whether Hungary should extend more support to Ukraine.
Beyond the substance of his criticism of Orbán’s rule, Magyar has developed a level of political celebrity that, outside Orbán, is rarely seen in Hungarian politics. After his rallies, crowds often surge toward the stage to take selfies with him, waiting patiently as he poses for photos with supporters one by one.
His rapid ascent has become the subject of a documentary film released in Hungarian cinemas this year. “Spring Wind — The Awakening,” which has topped the box offices, follows Magyar’s journey from a relatively unknown inside to the political star now taking on Orbán's regime.
FILE - Péter Magyar, a former Fidesz insider that broke ranks with the party in February, poses for a portrait after an interview with The Associated Press in Vac, Hungary, on May 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Denes Erdos, File)
FILE - Former Hungarian government insider Peter Magyar gives a speech next tot Kossut Lajos Square on Tuesdy, in Budapest, Hungary, March 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Denes Erdos, File)
FILE - Péter Magyar, the former husband of one-time justice minister and Orbán ally Judit Varga meets with people in the crowd after his speech on Hungary's National Day in Budapest on Friday, March 15. 2024. (AP Photo/Denes Erdos, File)
U.S. President Donald Trump appeared to cast doubt on the effectiveness of the two-week ceasefire over Iran's continued chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz, while Kuwait accused Iran and its proxies of launching drone attacks despite the ceasefire.
Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard denied launching attacks Thursday night on Persian Gulf states.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu offered a potential boost to ceasefire efforts in the region when he said he had approved direct talks with Lebanon. The Lebanese government has not responded as of Friday morning.
The announcement came after Israel pounded Beirut Wednesday, killing more than 300 people. The negotiations are expected next week in Washington, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Questions remained over what will happen to Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium at the heart of tensions, how and when normal traffic will resume through the Strait of Hormuz, and what happens to Iran’s ability to launch future missile attacks and support armed proxies in the region.
Talks between the United States and Iran on a resolution to the conflict are expected to start Saturday in Islamabad, with the White House saying Vice President JD Vance would lead the U.S. delegation.
Here is the latest:
The largest monthly jump in gas prices in six decades caused a sharp spike in inflation in March, creating major challenges for the inflation-fighters at the Federal Reserve and heightening the political challenges of rising costs for the White House.
Consumer prices rose 3.3% in March from a year earlier, the Labor Department said Friday, up sharply from just 2.4% in February. On a monthly basis, prices rose 0.9% in March from February, the largest such increase in nearly four years.
Excluding the volatile food and energy categories, core prices rose 2.6% in March from a year earlier, up from 2.5% in February. But last month, core prices rose a modest 0.2%, suggesting the gas price shock hasn’t yet spread to many other categories.
The gas price shock stemming from the Iran war has shifted inflation’s trajectory from a slow, gradual decline to a sharp increase, further away from the Fed’s 2% target. As a result, the central bank will almost certainly postpone any cut in interest rates for months.
Gas prices are also a highly visible cost that has outsize impacts on consumer confidence and political sentiment.
Vice President JD Vance is warning Tehran not to “play” the U.S. as he departs for Islamabad for negotiations aimed at ending the war with Iran.
President Donald Trump has tasked the member of his inner circle who has seemed to be the most reluctant defender of the conflict with Iran to now find a resolution to the war that began six weeks ago and stave off the U.S. president’s astonishing threat to wipe out its “whole civilization.”
Vance, who has long been skeptical of foreign military interventions and outspoken about the prospect of sending troops into open-ended conflicts, sets off Friday to lead mediated talks with Iran in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad.
It comes as a tenuous, temporary ceasefire appears to be on the precipice of collapsing. The chasm between Iran’s public demands and those from the U.S. and its partner Israel seems irreconcilable.
And in the U.S., where Vance might ask voters in two years to make him the next president, there is growing political and economic pressure to wrap it up.
In the first official statement from the militant group since Israel announced it would enter into direct negotiations with Lebanon, Hezbollah chief Naim Kassem said, “We call on (Lebanese) officials to stop offering free concessions,” but did not take a clear stance on the prospect of talks.
Kassem praised the performance of Hezbollah fighters battling Israeli forces in southern Lebanon and said Israel had been unable to make significant advances.
“We will not accept a return to the previous situation,” Kassem said, an apparent reference to the 15 months before the outbreak of the latest Israel-Hezbollah war, when a ceasefire was nominally in place but the Israeli military continued to carry out near-daily strikes in Lebanon that it said aimed to stop Hezbollah from regrouping.
U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer told broadcaster ITV in an interview recorded Thursday that he’s “fed up with the fact that families across the country see their bills go up and down on energy, businesses’ bills go up and down on energy because of the actions of Putin or Trump across the world.”
Starmer’s point was that Britain needs energy independence. But mentioning the Russian and U.S. presidents in the same breath is a departure for the prime minister, who usually avoids direct criticism of U.S. President Donald Trump.
The Iran war has soured relations between the two leaders, with Trump lashing out over Starmer’s reluctance to join the conflict.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer says reopening the Strait of Hormuz is vital to strengthening a “fragile” ceasefire in the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.
Speaking Friday as he left Qatar after a three-day visit to the Gulf, Starmer said leaders in the region were adamant that “there can’t be tolling or restrictions” on commercial shipping through the waterway, which has effectively been shut by Iran.
Starmer said he told U.S. President Donald Trump in a call on Thursday that ending the conflict “has to involve” Iran’s Gulf neighbors, who “have very strong views on the Strait of Hormuz.” Britain is involved with other countries in military planning to ensure security in the strait, if the ceasefire turns into a longer peace.
The World Food Program said that 874,000 people in Lebanon were already facing “acute food insecurity” before the latest escalation. Despite the risks, the WFP is continuing to send humanitarian convoys to southern Lebanon to villages on the border with Israel, which have been subject to heavy bombing, the agency said in a statement.
It says it has provided emergency food and assistance to over 440,000 people since March 2.
Some Beirut residents, desperate for any sign of the war ending, welcomed the prospect of talks between their government and Israel for the first time in decades.
“Negotiations are the only way to peace,” said Iyad al‑Kilani. “People are displaced, living on the streets. People aren’t living.”
Other residents, sleeping in tents and cars after fleeing their homes in southern Lebanon, where Hezbollah is battling an Israeli ground invasion and heavy aerial bombardment, said they didn’t trust Israel’s intentions in the talks. “If we negotiate, we will be negotiating with someone who only understands force,” said Rabih Hammoud. “They (Israel) must stop the war and leave. Then we can talk.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the Israeli military will continue strikes on the Iran-backed group while the talks in Washington focus on disarming Hezbollah. In just one of many obstacles, the Lebanese government has no direct control over Hezbollah. It also insists on a ceasefire before wider discussions about the future of Hezbollah can take place.
In the Ain al-Mraisseh neighborhood along Beirut’s coastal corniche, where an Israeli strike on Wednesday wiped out the bottom floors of a multistory building, causing a partial collapse, stunned residents tried to salvage whatever furniture and personal mementos they could find in the rubble.
Although now homeless, some men at the scene expressed gratitude that they lost only their apartments, not their loved ones. The strikes killed more than 300 people and wounded over 1,800, authorities said.
“There is no substitute for family,” said Wissam Tabila, 35. “Everything else can be replaced. The house and other things can be replaced, but parents, children, or a wife, this is the most important.”
The World Health Organization said Israel forces had previously issued an evacuation order for Beirut’s Jnah area, which includes the Rafik Hariri — the main public hospital in the city — and Al Zahraa Hospital.
WHO’s top representative in Lebanon said Friday that Israel provided “assurance” after late-night talks with U.N. officials that Israeli forces would not attack the hospitals as they continue military action against Hezbollah.
Dr. Abdinasir Abubakar, speaking to reporters in Geneva, said U.N. officials “got some assurance back saying that these two hospitals will not be attacked.”
Separately, Abubakar said Israeli forces warned that “ambulances will be attacked.” An Israeli army spokesman wrote on X that Hezbollah is “deliberately using ambulances for terror purposes.” Abubakar said WHO was not able to independently confirm those claims.
A top medical official in Iran has put the death toll in the war with Israel and the United States at over 3,000 people.
The state-run IRAN daily newspaper quoted Abbas Masjedi, head of the Legal Medicine Organization, as saying “more than 3,000 people were killed in enemy attacks.” Masjedi did not elaborate on the breakdown in civilian versus military casualties. Iran’s government has not provided any definitive death toll from the weekslong war.
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung shared on his X account what appeared to be a 2024 video showing Israeli soldiers throwing a body from a rooftop in the occupied West Bank, and wrote: “humanitarian law must be observed under any circumstances.”
Lee, in his posts Friday, did not make a direct comment on the ongoing conflict in the Middle East or Israel’s current war operations, but said, “Lessons marked on the painful wounds of the past must not be repeated as recurring tragedies.”
Lee said the video, which he reposted from another account, was from a “shocking” incident in September 2024 that was also investigated by Israeli authorities. Lee’s office did not immediately provide an explanation for why he posted those messages. Lee’s government earlier on Friday said it was sending senior diplomat Chung Byung-ha as a special envoy to Iran to discuss the safety of its citizens and Iran’s chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz.
Singapore’s Prime Minister Lawrence Wong said the island state will not restrict fuel exports from its refineries due to Iran war disruptions. Singapore was Australia’s largest supplier of refined petroleum products.
“We do not plan to restrict exports. We didn’t have to do so even in the darkest days of COVID, and we will not do so during this energy crisis,” Wong said at a news conference with his Australian counterpart, Anthony Albanese. “It’s hypothetical. It won’t happen,” Wong added.
Albanese said Wong had given the same assurance in their bilateral meeting. “The prime minister’s just as confident in private as he is in public,” Albanese said.
Ukrainian military personnel shot down Iranian-designed Shahed drones in multiple Middle Eastern countries during the Iran war, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, describing the operations as part of a broader effort to help partners counter the same weapons used by Russia in Ukraine.
Zelenskyy made his first public acknowledgment of the operations Wednesday in remarks to reporters that were embargoed until Friday.
Zelenskyy said Ukrainian forces took part in active operations abroad using domestically produced, battle-tested interceptor drones.
Asian stocks were mostly up Friday while oil prices also rose on the fragile Iran war ceasefire and ahead of Iran-U.S. negotiations in Pakistan over the weekend.
South Korea’s Kospi was up 1.5% to 5,862.58. Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 climbed 1.9% to 56,952.60.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 0.8% to 25,954.15, while the Shanghai Composite index was also 0.8% higher at 3,996.34.
Brent crude, the international standard, was 1% higher at $96.92 per barrel. Benchmark U.S. crude was up 0.8% to $98.62 a barrel.
For oil prices, “$65-70 a barrel is not coming back,” Ajay Rajadhyaksha of Barclays wrote in a recent research note, referring to the pre-Iran war oil price levels. The bank predicts that Brent crude could remain at around $85 per barrel on average for this year.
“A ceasefire is not a refund,” he wrote. “Ceasefires end wars; they don’t undo them.”
Pakistan’s capital fell unusually quiet Friday as authorities locked down Islamabad ahead of high-stakes talks between the United States and Iran aimed at securing a lasting ceasefire after weeks of war.
Roads lay nearly empty, checkpoints were set up at major arteries, and a two-day public holiday kept residents indoors.
Behind the calm, diplomatic activity intensified.
U.S. Vice President JD Vance is set to leave for Pakistan Friday, while an Iranian delegation was also expected there.
Security was tightened, with additional troops and police deployed across Islamabad.
Talks are set to begin Saturday, drawing global attention and placing Islamabad at the center of efforts to bring an end to the war.
Multiple times overnight into Friday morning, people around Iran’s capital, Tehran, and other parts of the country said they heard what sounded like air defense fire and explosions.
However, Iran’s government did not acknowledge any attack during that period.
After past exchanges of fire with Israel, similar incidents happened as troops remained on edge.
Japan said it will release an additional 20 days’ worth of oil reserves in May, in a second round address supply uncertainty over the war in the Middle East.
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said the planned release of the government reserves will start in early May, after an earlier release last month.
Japan started releasing about 50 days’ worth of oil reserves in March, including from those held by the state, the private sector and oil-producing Gulf nations.
As of April 6, Japan had 230 days’ worth of oil reserves, including 143 days’ worth in government stockpiles, according to the Natural Resources and Energy Agency.
Takaichi said her government is working to secure oil imports via routes that do not include the Strait of Hormuz, while Japan seeks to diversify suppliers.
Pakistan said Friday it would issue visas on arrival for those traveling to Islamabad for the Iran-U.S. talks, signaling the interest in the world’s media in the event.
A Lebanese civil defense worker looks upward near the site of a building destroyed in an Israeli airstrike a day earlier in central Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, April 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
A Lebanese civil defense worker looks on as an excavator operates on the rubble of a building destroyed in an Israeli airstrike a day earlier in Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, April 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
People residing in an underground shelter pack up their belongings as they prepare to leave after the announcement of a two-week ceasefire agreement between Iran and the US, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Thursday, April 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
Men inspect the damage to their home destroyed in an Israeli airstrike a day earlier in Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, April 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
A government supporter weeps during a mourning ceremony marking the 40th day since the death of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in the U.S. and Israel strikes in Tehran, Iran, Thursday, April 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Displaced families extend their hands while waiting for donated food beside the tents they use as shelters after fleeing Israeli bombardment in southern Lebanon, in Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, April 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
