The official campaign season started in Hungary on Saturday, 21 February. Now, candidate billboards financed by the parties can be put up, and—more importantly—the collection of signatures for ballot qualification has also started.
Péter Magyar, leading the ticket for the opposition Tisza Party, boasted that his party had amassed a whopping 250,000 signatures by noon on the first day the collection started, this Saturday. That is certainly an impressive feat and show of strength for the newest challenger of the long-reigning Prime Minister Viktor Orbán of Hungary from the Fidesz Party.
There is only one problem—that claim is completely false.
The Budapest-based conservative think tank Center for Fundamental Rights has reached out to the National Election Office (NVI) of Hungary with a public information request for the official numbers.
‘According to official data, the Tisza Party submitted 13,806 forms by 4 pm [on 21 February], with a maximum of eight signatures per form—in practice, usually fewer. However, even counting eight signatures per form, they could only have submitted 110,448 recommendations, which is far below their propagated 250,000 number. In contrast, Fidesz-KDNP submitted 24,523 forms on the same day, which amounts to approximately 196,000 recommendations, nearly 85,000 more than Tisza,’ the Center wrote in a Facebook post about their findings.
‘Péter Magyar is not known for telling the truth very often. He has misled his voters on issues such as taking his seat in the European Parliament if elected, his immunity, his party’s platform, and countless other topics. In light of the above, the Center for Fundamental Rights submitted a public interest data request to the National Election Office. Based on the NVI’s data, Péter Magyar has not told the truth this time either,’ the Center goes on to claim in their post.
Tisza’s supporter base has been rabidly vocal online. However, evidence of similar electoral strength is yet to be shown by the party.
In 2025, there were two by-elections held in Hungary for vacant parliamentary seats. Tisza fielded candidates in neither, despite one being in opposition-favouring Budapest, while the other being in the Fidesz-stronghold rural Hungary in Tolna County.
Earlier this month, Fidesz flipped a seat in the City Council of Balmazújváros, Hajdú-Bihar County, Hungary, giving them control of the municipal body. Again, Tisza could not be bothered to nominate a candidate from their party, which—according to some pollsters—are just banging on the door to take over power in Budapest.
For instance, as recently as early February, 21 Research Center put out a poll showing Tisza up 16 points among likely voters. That would be a ‘casual’ 31.5-point shift in the national popular vote margin compared to the European Parliamentary election in June 2024, when Fidesz beat Tisza by 15.5 points. For reference, the largest shift in popular vote margin between an EP and a general election in Hungary was 17 points, from the 2019 EP election to the 2022 general election, and that occurred over three years, not two.
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