Anna Kiss takes a selfie with Peter Magyar, former government insider and leader of the Respect and Freedom (TISZA) Party at an electoral campaign tour for the European Parliament Elections, in Paszto, Hungary, May 25,2024.
The man hoping to challenge Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s 14-year iron grip over Hungarian politics is actively wooing Roma voters ahead of next weekend’s European Parliament (EP) election – and his message of change seems to be striking a chord.
Peter Magyar, a political novice who has tapped into public discontent with Hungary’s economic woes, took the rare step in May of visiting a notoriously deprived Roma community during a nationwide campaign tour of nearly 200 towns and villages.
“No politician has done this in Hungary before,” said Sandor Botos, a Roma construction worker, referring to Magyar’s visit to the Hetes settlement in the town of Ozd, where hundreds of Roma still live without basic necessities such as running water.
“He showed the world how bad poverty is in these hidden villages, how many children are starving, that they are not in school,” said Botos, 48, while attending a Magyar campaign rally in the town of Paszto in northeast Hungary.
Botos smiled as his young grandson Noel took a selfie with Magyar after the speech.
Magyar’s charm offensive in Ozd may worry Orban’s nationalist Fidesz party, which has long enjoyed the support of Roma and other poorer, often rural-based Hungarians thanks to cash support programmes and its advocacy of traditional values.
The first visit in decades by a mainstream Hungarian politician to a Roma settlement could prove pivotal.
“(Magyar) knows that in the long run, he will not be able to win an election without the Roma,” said Robert Laszlo, election analyst at think-tank Political Capital.
Fidesz, in power since 2010 and helped by its grip over state and also some private media, is comfortably ahead in opinion polls and can expect over 40% of the vote in Sunday’s EP election. But the Tisza party, which Magyar has only led since April, is running second at around 20%.
