Two weeks before pivotal elections, Hungary’s young voters are rallying behind Péter Magyar’s Tisza party and posing the strongest challenge to Prime Minister Viktor Orbán in years. Polls show Tisza dominates among voters under 30, while older voters are with Orbán.
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Here's how to stay safeOne Tech Tip: Here's how AI can help you in your job huntThe future of fish is looking a lot like meatPope Leo XIV rejects claims that God justifies war in Palm Sunday Mass messageCalifornia lidera plan para añadir vitamina a tortillas y reducir defectos congénitos entre latinosFILE -People listen to the speech of former Hungarian government insider Peter Magyar next to Kossuth Square on Tuesdy, in Budapest, Hungary, March 26, 2024. Supporters cheer as the opposition leader Peter Magyar addresses them during a march in Budapest, Sunday, March 15, 2026. Supporters of prime minister Viktor Orbán listen during a countryside campaign tour in Kaposvár, Hungary, Monday, March 16, 2026 ahead of April 12 parliamentary election. Supporters of Prime Minister Viktor Orban take part in a march in Budapest, Hungary, Sunday, March 15, 2026. Prime minister of Hungary, Viktor Orbán speaks during a countryside campaign tour in Kaposvár, Hungary, Monday, March 16, 2026 ahead of April 12 parliamentary election. FILE -People listen to the speech of former Hungarian government insider Peter Magyar next to Kossuth Square on Tuesdy, in Budapest, Hungary, March 26, 2024. FILE -People listen to the speech of former Hungarian government insider Peter Magyar next to Kossuth Square on Tuesdy, in Budapest, Hungary, March 26, 2024. Supporters cheer as the opposition leader Peter Magyar addresses them during a march in Budapest, Sunday, March 15, 2026. Supporters cheer as the opposition leader Peter Magyar addresses them during a march in Budapest, Sunday, March 15, 2026. Supporters of prime minister Viktor Orbán listen during a countryside campaign tour in Kaposvár, Hungary, Monday, March 16, 2026 ahead of April 12 parliamentary election. Supporters of prime minister Viktor Orbán listen during a countryside campaign tour in Kaposvár, Hungary, Monday, March 16, 2026 ahead of April 12 parliamentary election. Supporters of Prime Minister Viktor Orban take part in a march in Budapest, Hungary, Sunday, March 15, 2026. Supporters of Prime Minister Viktor Orban take part in a march in Budapest, Hungary, Sunday, March 15, 2026. Prime minister of Hungary, Viktor Orbán speaks during a countryside campaign tour in Kaposvár, Hungary, Monday, March 16, 2026 ahead of April 12 parliamentary election. Prime minister of Hungary, Viktor Orbán speaks during a countryside campaign tour in Kaposvár, Hungary, Monday, March 16, 2026 ahead of April 12 parliamentary election. BUDAPEST, Hungary — A group of friends in their mid-20s campaigned door to door last week in a small Hungarian city, supporting a political movement that soon could end Prime MinisterLake Balaton region were volunteering for the center-right Tisza party and its leader, Péter Magyar, and campaigning to move past what they described as Orbán’s broken system. “We’ve lived our whole lives in this system, and we want to see what it could be like outside of it,” said Florián Végh, a 25-year-old student. “I can say on behalf of my fellow university students and my friends that this system is absolutely dysfunctional.”while the oldest citizens remain loyal to the prime minister — a split that could be a decisive factor in the April 12 elections. Orbán, 62, trails in the polls behind Magyar, a 45-year-old lawyer who broke with Orbán’s nationalist-populist Fidesz party over a political scandal in 2024. He has led Tisza on aFidesz’s declining popularity during economic stagnation and political and corruption scandals has widened the demographic divide. A recent survey by pollster 21 Research Center found that 65% of voters under 30 support Tisza, while 14% are backing Orbán.One Tisza volunteer, 24-year-old student Levente Koltai, pointed out that Fidesz is an acronym in Hungarian for “Alliance of Young Democrats.” But he believes the party no longer lives up to its name. “Fidesz has lost the title of young, democratic and alliance,” he told The Associated Press. “It’s gone from young to old, from democratic to tending toward dictatorial, and from an alliance to a circle of cronies.” Andrea Szabó, a senior researcher with Eötvös Loránd University’s Institute for Political Science in Budapest, said a changing of the guard was emerging in Hungary, where “a new, active political generation is beginning to unfold before our eyes.” While Orbán’s political generation was defined by its fight against Hungary’s Soviet-era socialist system in the 1980s and 1990s, “now, we have reached the point where after 25 years, there is a new political generation that is against the Orbán regime,” Szabó said., and applaud benefits to young families such as abolishing income tax for mothers with multiple children and providing state-backed loans to first-time homebuyers. Such policies, as well as a pension supplement for retirees, appeal to many older voters. Fidesz leads Tisza 50% to 19% among retirement-age Hungarians, according to the 21 Research Center Poll. Zsuzsanna Prépos, a retiree, said at one of Orbán’s recent campaign rallies that she was “very happy” with the government’s pension policies, and that she’s supporting Fidesz because it “helps young people.”Yet such measures have not translated into youth support for Orbán. In several recent speeches, he has both scolded young people for their anti-government attitudes and pleaded with them to reconsider. “Young people, wake up!” he said at a rally last week. “These are not times for taking risks, experimenting or trying new things. ... Believe me, today only Fidesz and my humble self can provide this country with security.” Szabó, the researcher, said while many young people view Orbán’s family support policies positively, their “very strong sense of justice” is incompatible with “the authoritarian exercise of power, the corruption, the fact that they feel vulnerable and that there is insecurity in the country.” “Their lives essentially took place entirely within the Orbán regime, so they know nothing other than this kind of functioning of power,” she said.Hungary was rocked by scandal in February 2024 when it was revealed that the president, a close Orbán ally, had granted a pardon to an accomplice in a child sexual abuse case. The revelationdemanding a political transformation. Drawing tens of thousands, it marked a turning point which “opened the door to politicization for a lot of young people,” Szabó said. In the wake of the pardon scandal, Magyar broke with Fidesz and launched Tisza. Three months later, the party won 30% of the vote in European Parliament elections.That economic message has resonated with youth. Végh, the Tisza volunteer, said it’s easier than ever for his internet-savvy generation to access different forms of information, and to travel to nearby countries where governments are putting public money to good use. “In Austria, you see a much calmer, more peaceful, more educated society with better roads and better health care,” he said. “You cross the border and see that you have drifted into a developed European country.” Although Tisza leads in the polls, its victory is far from assured. Orbán has a lead among older voters and in much of the countryside. At a recent rally in Budapest that drew upward of 100,000 people, Tisza supporter Dorina Csobán said the election battle had become “pretty divisive in my family for the older people, because we younger people are saying clearly that there must be change.”
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