Main challenger to Hungary's Orban begins campaign tour on a canoe

By Krisztina Fenyo

Hungary's main opposition leader Peter Magyar set off on a campaign tour in a canoe on Wednesday saying his Tisza party could go it alone without needing allies to defeat nationalist Prime Minister's Viktor Orban in the 2026 election.

Magyar's centre-right party has a firm lead over the ruling Fidesz in most polls and poses the biggest political challenge to Orban in his 15-year rule at a time when the Hungarian leader is struggling to boost an inflation-hit economy.

Speaking in the eastern town of Tokaj before an 80-day tour of the countryside, Magyar said Hungary was in a downward spiral with the economy stagnating and public services crumbling.

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He is promising a "Hungarian New Deal" to revive the economy with massive investment, EU funds and more predictable policies if his party wins next year.

"Tisza will sign an alliance, a coalition with Hungarian people ... we will not be signing some kinds of behind-the-doors deals," Magyar told reporters beside the Tisza river.

The energetic 44-year-old lawyer and former member of Orban's circles burst into Hungarian politics early last year.

He cited polls showing Tisza was on course for a convincing win in 2026 by going alone. No date is yet set for the vote.

TOUR OF ORBAN'S POLITICAL HEARTLAND

Orban said in a Magyar Nemzet podcast earlier this week that unlike his Fidesz, Tisza was a "digital political movement" and not an established party, and he was calm about the election as his government's performance spoke for itself.

Magyar will tour small villages and towns, where Fidesz has been strongest in the past four elections which Orban swept with landslides.

From Tokaj, he paddled off in a canoe towards the village of Tiszaladany and then Tiszalok later on Wednesday.

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Orban is expected to deliver a keynote speech on July 26 as an informal election campaign gathers speed even without a date. The government launched massive tax cuts and a large-scale subsidized housing programme in recent weeks.