He emerged victorious from the parliamentary elections in Hungary this Sunday. But behind this success lies another battle: the one opposing him to his ex-wife, Judit Varga, former Minister of Justice, in a war involving accusations of violence, clandestine recording and political scandals.

He has just brought down Viktor Orbán, with whom he was once very close. This Sunday, April 12, Péter Magyar, 45, won the Hungarian parliamentary elections at the head of Tisza (an acronym for Respect and Freedom), the opposition party he propelled to power in less than two years. With more than 53% of the vote, he has just ended sixteen years of rule by the former nationalist prime minister, giving his movement a constitutional supermajority in Parliament. "We have liberated Hungary," he declared on the evening of his victory.

But behind this historic triumph lies another, more troubling and personal war: the one he wages against his ex-wife, Judit Varga, former Minister of Justice and a prominent figure in Fidesz, Viktor Orbán's national-conservative party. For Péter Magyar's rise was not built solely against the ousted prime minister. It was also fueled by their explosive divorce, which became a public battleground.

Bribery and resignation

Their rift began in 2023 when Péter Magyar and Judit Varga, who have three children, officially divorced after eighteen years of marriage. A few months later, their separation became public. On March 26, 2024, Péter Magyar released a secret recording of a conversation from January 2023 with his ex-wife, then Minister of Justice. In the recording, Judit Varga discussed possible interference in a corruption case involving Pál Völner, a former State Secretary at the Ministry of Justice, suspected of accepting bribes. Péter Magyar claimed that those close to the government had tried to destroy sensitive elements of judicial documents. The release of the recording sparked protests in Budapest and prompted the public prosecutor's office to open an investigation, which was ultimately closed in June 2024.

Judit Varga saw this as an attempt at revenge by her ex-husband, but also as a desire to discredit the government, just as it had founded the Tisza party in preparation for the upcoming parliamentary elections. Although she had already resigned from her post earlier, due to another matter, the former minister immediately counterattacked with a lengthy televised interview on Frizbi TV. Over the course of more than two hours, she described her ex-husband as "a monster" driven by revenge. She accused him of domestic violence, repeated humiliation, and blackmail, even before their divorce, based on this recording that he allegedly kept to keep her under pressure. She claimed to have lived for years under many other threats.

"Violent and manipulative"

The former minister claims to have uttered a "false truth" in the recording, under pressure from a husband she describes as "violent and manipulative." Among the other episodes mentioned in the interview, and reported the very next day by the Hungarian media outlet Magyar Nemzet, Judit Varga asserts that Péter Magyar made derogatory and humiliating remarks to her from the beginning of their relationship, remarks to which she initially paid no attention, so deeply was she in love.

She recounts, in particular, that after the birth of their first child, while she was marveling at the moment, her husband abruptly interrupted her, accusing her of not being able to form a coherent sentence. When she began to cry, he allegedly snapped at her, "Cry and you won't get any more milk!" According to her account, he also insulted her family, even calling her mother an idiot. "I felt like he wanted to destroy me," the former minister confides, describing it as "the ultimate stage of narcissistic personality disorder," an atmosphere that, in her view, had become toxic for their children. In a message, she reiterated: "He's been blackmailing me with this for a long time: if I dared to divorce, if I dared to kick him out, if I dared to speak out… If I dared to do anything other than what he wanted, I would regret it."

On March 29, Péter Magyar retaliated on Facebook, completely turning the accusation on its head. "I never hit the mother of my children, but she hit me several times. Sometimes with her fists, sometimes with her feet. Sometimes in front of witnesses, sometimes behind closed doors," he asserted. According to him, his ex-wife was a puppet, even remotely, of the Hungarian government, working to transform a matter of state into a tabloid-style marital dispute and thus "divert attention from the real legal and political issues" and "evade responsibility." This line of defense didn't prevent him from also delving into personal matters, accusing Judit Varga of not respecting the divorce agreement and turning their children against him.

"Betrayal is not a success."

Finally, in July 2025, when questioned in Budapest about a possible return to politics to challenge her ex-husband, Judit Varga snubbed the idea: "I don't want to participate in that race if a certain person named Péter Magyar is running." She added, "Betrayal is not a success, especially when it involves betraying our own family." And further, "What kind of person is he? When his wife can no longer bear the unbelievable drama and abuse she endures and announces she wants a divorce, he resorts to this despicable manipulation."

As reported by Euronews, Péter Magyar had concluded, before being elected in April 2026: "Neither now nor in the future do I wish to respond to the accusations of this repeated propaganda. I wish my ex-wife to live in peace," he replied; adding: "With such a scandal, in a true democracy, with a genuine rule of law, the government would fail and the ministers would be imprisoned." Two years later, Péter Magyar thus appears to have won the battle. At least, for now.