{"id":787270,"date":"2026-02-25T04:19:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T04:19:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/787270\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T04:19:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T04:19:14","slug":"a-battle-against-the-eu-politico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/787270\/","title":{"rendered":"A battle against the EU \u2013 POLITICO"},"content":{"rendered":"

In an\u00a0interview<\/a>\u00a0with POLITICO in 2024, Magyar said Tisza was pro-EU but was candid about the EU\u2019s shortcomings. He expressed opposition to a European \u201csuperstate\u201d and said he didn\u2019t have \u201cfriends\u201d in the European Parliament. That followed his first press conference in the Parliament, in which he opposed\u00a0sending weapons<\/a>\u00a0to Ukraine.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, Orb\u00e1n\u2019s Fidesz party sought to corner Magyar over the EU\u2019s giant Mercosur trade deal with South America, which it opposes on the grounds it would harm Hungarian farmers. In Budapest, Orb\u00e1n accused Magyar of backing the agreement and undermining farmers because Tisza sits with the center-right European People\u2019s Party grouping in the European Parliament, which supported the trade pact.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"So Orb\u00e1n\u2019s gone on the attack against two of his favorite bogeymen abroad: Brussels and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. | Ukrinform\/NurPhoto via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Ultimately, however, Tisza voted in January to freeze ratification of the EU-Mercosur accord, breaking with the EPP line \u2014 a move that triggered a \u201cshitstorm\u201d against the Hungarian delegation at a subsequent group meeting, according to an official who was present.<\/p>\n

Calibrated messaging<\/p>\n

Magyar\u2019s awkward relationship with Brussels was on full display at the Munich Security Conference this month. He used the event to initiate a tentative outreach to European heavyweights including Germany\u2019s Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Vice Chancellor Lars Klingbeil, as well as Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, Croatia\u2019s Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovi\u0107, and Finnish President Alexander Stubb.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The messaging was cautiously calibrated. Magyar said he wanted to undo the damage Orb\u00e1n had done to democratic and judicial norms, but with the chief goal of restoring Hungary\u2019s access to EU funds and standing up \u201cfor Hungarian interests.\u201d His language on Ukraine was far cooler.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe top priority of a future Tisza government will be to secure the EU funds Hungary is entitled to. To achieve this, we will immediately introduce strict anti-corruption measures, restore judicial independence, and safeguard the freedom of the press and higher education,\u201d he said\u00a0on X<\/a>\u00a0after meeting with Merz Feb. 14.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In an\u00a0interview\u00a0with POLITICO in 2024, Magyar said Tisza was pro-EU but was candid about the EU\u2019s shortcomings. He…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":787271,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5174],"tags":[766,1213,13489,2575,13490,5898,33,35,2000,299,5187,1699,6644,39,1824,18109,2348,2190,1106,660,11665,22708,14791,2661,11854,15857,770,47,7338,811,22713,1201,657,1220,1781,2601,335],"class_list":["post-787270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-eu","tag-alexander-stubb","tag-americas","tag-bulgaria","tag-corruption","tag-croatia","tag-donald-tusk","tag-elections","tag-energy","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-european","tag-european-union","tag-farmers","tag-fuels","tag-germany","tag-higher-education","tag-history","tag-hungary","tag-judiciary","tag-kremlin","tag-meps","tag-mercosur","tag-munich-security-conference","tag-oil","tag-peter-magyar","tag-pipelines","tag-poland","tag-poll","tag-rule-of-law","tag-security","tag-south-america","tag-trade","tag-ukraine","tag-ursula-von-der-leyen","tag-viktor-orban","tag-volodymyr-zelenskyy","tag-war-in-ukraine"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116129350574438928","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/787270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=787270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/787270\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/787271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=787270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=787270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=787270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}