Shoes-On-Pavement Wins Mayoral Vote: POTTER

By Evan H. Potter

On April 12, Péter Magyar did something in Hungary that, until recently, belonged in the realm of political fantasy. He defeated Viktor Orbán, a 16-year incumbent who had long since fused political power with media dominance.

Magyar and his Tisza Party didn’t do it by out-shouting Orbán on ideology or by picking culture-war fights. He did it the old-fashioned way. He toured the country relentlessly beginning in 2024. He showed up everywhere, including in Orbán strongholds far from Budapest. And he talked, mostly, about economic hardship – what we, in Ottawa, prefer to call “affordability.”