Insider out The ex-diplomat challenging Orbán's regime

It is a chaotic political saga that Hungarians are following like a soap opera. A former Hungarian government insider has become the talk of the country after he publicly broke with the nation's powerful leadership and declared he would launch a new political party.

- Lili Bayer

Until a few weeks ago, Péter Magyar was virtually unknown. Now, he is dominating conversations and headlines - and making the government of Hungary's longtime prime minister, Viktor Orbán, deeply uncomfortable.

A lawyer by profession, Magyar once belonged to an elite circle around Orbán's ruling Fidesz party. He served as a Hungarian diplomat. He held senior positions in state entities. And he was married to Judit Varga, a former justice minister who was slated to lead the Fidesz party list in the June European election. The couple, who have three children, were often portrayed as the perfect, model conservative family.

But one day in February, less than a year after his divorce from Varga was announced, Magyar suddenly burst on to the national political scene, shocking the country by openly criticising the government and calling for change.

"It was a long internal struggle but a quick and sudden decision," Magyar told the Guardian. "There was no plan from my side to enter politics; I have just found myself obliged to tell the truth publicly about the government and the oligarchs."

His sudden transformation came as a bombshell, capturing the imaginations of many Hungarians who had lost hope of anything truly shifting in a country long dominated by Orbán. For more than a decade, the Hungarian leader has centralised power at home, increasingly extending his influence into the judiciary, media, universities and cultural institutions - all while cultivating closer ties to Moscow, Beijing and far-right movements globally.

"I have got tens of thousands of messages, encouragement and requests to enter politics and organise a third political power which should be independent from the government and the opposition," Magyar said.