Court ruling deals further blow to Fidesz campaign, Tisza leader Magyar claims

Hungarian opposition leader Péter Magyar said on Wednesday that a first-instance ruling by the Budapest Metropolitan Court has delivered a major setback to the ruling Fidesz campaign.

According to Magyar, the court ruled in favour of the Tisza Party in a case against the publisher of Index over an article that presented a supposed 600-page economic programme as belonging to the opposition party. Magyar said the ruling confirmed that the document had no connection to Tisza, despite being used as the foundation of a full-scale government campaign.

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AI-generated references and witness testimony

The Tisza Party filed a criminal complaint for defamation in early December. According to Magyar, the court established that some of the references cited in the article were “hallucinated” by artificial intelligence, meaning they did not exist in reality.

In his post following the ruling, Magyar said the court heard testimony from Zoltán Fekete-Szalóky, editor-in-chief of Index, as well as András Kármán, Tisza’s tax policy adviser.

Magyar stated that with Wednesday’s ruling, “the Fidesz campaign has definitively collapsed.”

Index response and appeal

Index acknowledged the court’s decision, stating that the Tisza Party had disputed virtually all claims made in the article. The outlet said the court partially upheld Tisza’s claim and ordered a correction, although the wording of the correction was significantly shortened compared with what the party had requested.

Index also announced that it would appeal the first-instance ruling.

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Second case: another document rejected by the courts

The Budapest Metropolitan Court also ruled this week in a separate, repeated procedure concerning another government-aligned Index article. In that earlier case, Tisza sued after Index attributed a forged personal income tax increase proposal to the party’s non-existent economic cabinet.

Although the court initially ruled in September 2025 that no correction was required—arguing the article expressed opinion—the Budapest Court of Appeal overturned that decision in December and ordered a new procedure.

In the repeated first-instance hearing, the court obliged Index to publish a correction, effectively acknowledging that the document had no connection to Tisza’s tax policy plans.

Government use of disputed claims

According to Magyar, the gravity of the alleged forgery was compounded by the fact that the government later incorporated the document’s false claims into a National Consultation, distributing them to the public at a cost of billions of forints.

He also noted that senior Index figures were publicly honoured at a Christmas event hosted by businessman Lőrinc Mészáros, whose business interests are widely regarded as close to the government.

Political fallout and accountability claims

Magyar reiterated that the creation, publication, and large-scale dissemination of what he described as AI-assisted forgeries constituted serious legal violations. He said that in a functioning rule-of-law system, responsibility would extend to political decision-makers, content producers, media executives, and those financing and distributing the materials.

He added that recent opinion polls show growing public frustration with government communication and the use of public funds, and claimed that voters are increasingly turning away from Fidesz ahead of the upcoming election.

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