Hungary’s Orban Faces Unprecedented Challenge as Propaganda Machine Falters

For the first time in his 15-year reign, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban is struggling to neutralize political opposition, as his formidable propaganda apparatus shows signs of weakness against rising challenger Peter Magyar.

Long celebrated by right-wing politicians in Europe and the United States—including former President Donald Trump, who once remarked, “It’s nice to have a strong man running your country”—Orban has maintained power through four consecutive elections with the help of a sprawling media machine designed to destroy opponents.

Now, however, that once-invincible system appears to be faltering. Magyar, a former Orban loyalist who now heads the opposition Tisza party, has been subjected to relentless attacks from government-controlled media portraying him as an abusive husband, traitor, criminal, and sexual predator. Yet this “tsunami of lies,” as Magyar describes it, has failed to diminish his popularity.

“Until now, these campaigns are not a success. That is clear,” acknowledged Agoston Mraz, a Fidesz supporter whose Nezöpont Institute conducts polling for the government. Most independent polls show Magyar’s party leading Fidesz ahead of next spring’s general election.

Magyar has countered with his own offensive against corruption, targeting what he calls “Orban’s Versailles”—a vast walled estate owned by the prime minister’s family—and exposing the extensive property holdings of Orban’s son-in-law, businessman Istvan Tiborcz.

According to Laszlo Keri, who taught Orban at university, the growing cracks in the prime minister’s previously impregnable facade reveal the limitations of what he describes as “a propaganda state.” While state media trumpet Orban as a defender of family values and the common man, everyday Hungarians face inflation, economic stagnation, and declining birthrates.

“Orban and his media talk all the time about Hungary’s bright future, but people see their daily reality,” said Keri, a Magyar supporter. “There are two parallel worlds, and the tension between them makes people very angry.”

Even Orban’s attempts to rally support by targeting marginalized groups appear to be backfiring. A government-banned Pride parade in Budapest this June drew over 100,000 participants—far more than previous years—despite Orban denouncing the event as “repulsive and shameful.”

“This is a very sad story of a very talented politician who could have been an outstanding statesman not only in Hungary but in the whole of Europe,” Keri noted. Orban and his party “have learned nothing over the last 15 years but how to attack and destroy their opponents.”

Orban’s political trajectory has been remarkable. He began his career as a champion of liberal values, even attending Oxford University on a scholarship funded by George Soros—the Hungarian-born philanthropist he now vilifies as a manipulator behind liberal causes. His rightward shift began after Fidesz performed poorly in a 1994 election.

“He saw that he could not become prime minister from the center,” explained Zsuzsanna Szelenyi, a former Fidesz parliament member who split with Orban after he “pulled the whole party out of its original orbit.”

After becoming prime minister in 1998 and then suffering defeat in 2002, Orban concluded that “dealing with the media has to be a priority.” Upon returning to power in 2010, he rapidly moved to silence or take over outlets deemed hostile to his government.

Independent station Klubradio was among the first targets. “We lost 90 percent of our income in the first six months after Orban’s return,” recalled founder Andras Arato. The station eventually lost its license in 2021 and now exists only online.

Orban’s media control proved especially effective during the 2015-2016 migrant crisis. While his hard-line border policies were later adopted by other European nations, his propaganda machine characterized migrants as disease carriers and terrorists. Former state television journalist Krisztina Balogh remembered being instructed to find a doctor who would claim on camera that migrants were bringing diseases—a clear case of deliberate misinformation.

The COVID-19 pandemic presented new challenges, as Hungary recorded the world’s third-highest death rate. In response, Orban pivoted to culture war issues, particularly targeting LGBTQ+ rights with new restrictive legislation.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 provided another political lifeline. Opposition candidate Peter Marki-Zay was falsely portrayed as a warmonger who would send Hungarians to fight Russia. “They realized that the war was their winning lottery ticket,” Marki-Zay recalled of the government’s propaganda strategy.

With another election approaching in six months, Fidesz has struggled to find effective lines of attack against Magyar. Attempts to brand him as a secret liberal supporting LGBTQ+ rights failed when Magyar remained silent on the Pride parade ban. Efforts to prosecute him stalled when the European Parliament refused to lift his immunity.

Adding to Orban’s challenges, Hungarian author Laszlo Krasznahorkai—a fierce critic of the prime minister’s rule—was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature last week. While Orban congratulated him for bringing “pride to our nation,” Krasznahorkai responded that he would “always oppose his political action and ideas.”

Akos Hadhazy, a former Fidesz local councilor now in opposition, worries about what might happen if propaganda alone cannot secure victory. “In all hybrid regimes, there comes a time when propaganda is not enough,” he warned. When propaganda stops working, “you need to take harsher measures to keep winning.”