Anita Orbán unveils radical overhaul of Hungary’s foreign policy if Péter Magyar’s Tisza Party triumphs in April – video

In a chummy interview-style video, Péter Magyar, leader of the surging Tisza Party, sat down with Anita Orbán—the prime minister’s own daughter, no less—to sketch a vision for Hungary’s place in the world should Tisza seize power in the April general election. As Telex notes, Anita Orbán, once a fixture in Fidesz’s pro-Euroatlantic wing under figures like parliamentary foreign affairs committee chairman Zsolt Németh and ex-foreign minister János Martonyi (1998-2002, 2010-2014), echoes the opposition-era Viktor Orbán of the 2000s. Listening to her may remind us how far the prime minister has pivoted.

Anchoring Hungary firmly in the West

The duo’s amiable chat paints a clear picture: Anita Orbán, Hungary’s would-be top diplomat, stuck with the government only until Viktor Orbán ditched energy diversification for a cosy deal with Russia—the infamous Paks II nuclear plant, sealed in 2014 with a vast Russian loan. She jumped ship in 2015.

• Missed our piece on Anita Orbán’s career? Click and read the details.

“It’s good to be Hungarian,” Anita Orbán, unrelated to the premier Viktor Orbán, beamed, defining Central European spirit as a thirst for knowledge, unyielding resolve, and iron will. Her pitch? Ditch the current “shuttlecock” foreign policy—ping-ponging between East and West—for an idealistic commitment to the West. Top priority: resurrect Polish-Hungarian friendship and turbocharge Visegrád Four cooperation.

(For the record, those ties went off the rails thanks to Budapest’s Putin cosiness and meddling in Warsaw’s domestic rows. And, of course, without its strongest member, the Visegrád Four cannot be the same as it used to be)

No more friendly ties with Russia

The election, she insists, is also a referendum on Hungary’s EU membership. A Tisza government would unlock frozen EU funds, crippled by Orbán-era corruption. In Brussels, Hungary should swap vetoes for “win-win” deals that charm every partner.

On Ukraine? Ditch the pro-Russian tilt over the invasion. No weapons or troops from Budapest—but staunch defence for the at least 80,000-strong Hungarian community in Ukraine’s Transcarpathia region.

Sorting the Beneš Decrees—and beyond

Anita Orbán flags the thorny Beneš Decrees as job one: urgent talks with Slovakia’s foreign ministry to safeguard rights for the near-half-million indigenous Hungarians there. Péter Magyar weighed in, saying the new prime minister’s first stops should be Warsaw, Vienna and Brussels.

Fidesz fires back: ‘Lobbyist and puppet’

Not so fast, say Orbán loyalists. Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó accuses her of schmoozing for Western energy firms, urging him to snub cheap Russian gas. Fidesz parliamentary leader Máté Kocsis brands her an “agent” from the court of ex-liberal PM Gordon Bajnai (2009-10)—ideal for a Brussels puppet regime.

Relic of Fidesz’s vanished Euroatlantic wing

Telex recalls Anita Orbán as a envoy-at-large in PM Orbán’s second and third governments (2010-15), tied to pro-Western stalwarts like ex-foreign minister György Martonyi and Németh. She quit when Paks II scuppered her diversification crusade—a fight she’d waged since the 2000s.

Elevating her signals Tisza’s maturity: no longer Péter Magyar’s one man show, but a credible governing machine.

Listeners can tune in below to the riveting exchange between Magyar and Orbán on Hungary’s foreign policy horizon—with English subtitles: