Balázs Csercsa announced his departure from the Hungarian opposition Tisza Party’s campaign last week, on 20 January. The religious scholar has been a supporter and volunteer for Tisza since its inception, and has been leading its religious affairs task force during the campaign.

‘Now, however, I have realized that I can no longer accept the circumstances and changes I have experienced. I am still interested in culture and public life, especially church affairs, but it seems that in politics, names may change, but goals and methods remain the same,’ Csercsa wrote in his public message about his break from Tisza on Facebook.

This week, however, the former Tisza leader went even further. He gave a tell-all interview to the Hungarian news site Index.

In it, he confirmed that Péter Magyar and his party’s leaked austerity plan is accurate.

‘The rush that followed the publication of the infamous 600-page document was striking. I worked in a different field, so my information about the document comes only from conversations with people who are more familiar with the subject. There was constant speculation within the Tisza Party about the situation, but everyone pretty much agreed that its content was consistent with the ideas we had already heard from the party’s economic wing,’ Csercsa made the major revelation about his old party.

He cited the multi-bracket progressive tax system, the introduction of property taxes, and increasing the corporate tax rate as specifics that the leaked documents got right about Tisza’s actual plans.

The Tisza whistleblower also stated that the party is not being forthcoming with their actual plans in their campaign messaging. That falls in line with the infamous remarks made by Tisza Vice President Zoltán Tarr at a campaign event in August 2025. Csercsa believes that the party’s actual platform is in alignment with the ideas of the European People’s Party—Tisza’s political group in the European Parliament—but party leadership knows it is not popular with the Hungarian electorate, thus they keep it out of their public communication.

Csercsa described prime ministerial candidate Magyar’s leadership style as ‘autocratic’, and the overall party leadership as people who are in politics for their own enrichment. He also pointed out that despite the massive presence in traditional and—especially—social media, the party still only has 20–30 official members.

‘Based on feedback, I had good reason to believe that if Tisza won, I would be tasked with some important duty in the new administration. At the same time, I came to the conclusion that if I was serious about my moral principles, which I had expressed in several places and which I strive to implement in my life, then I could not lend my name to Tisza,’ the religious scholar told the site.

In his response on Facebook, Magyar called Index ‘a lie factory owned by [Fidesz-aligned businessman] Lőrinc Mészáros’, and claimed that Csercsa was denied a place on the list of Tisza MP candidates, and therefore he made the statements about the party out of spite.

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