Magyar: Our homeland is on the verge of being resurrected

The Tisza party presented the results of its nationwide survey and campaign A Nemzet Hangja (The Voice of the Nation) on Sunday afternoon at the quay by the University of Technology in Budapest. The 12+1 questions in the survey had to do with the most pressing domestic issues such as healthcare, education and various aspects of the taxing system, but the biggest opposition party also asked Hungarians whether they think Hungary should remain a member of NATO and the EU (98.68 percent said "yes") and whether the same person should only be allowed to be prime minister for two cycles, i.e. a total of eight years (96.52 percent agreed). Hungarians could also express their opinion on whether they think Ukraine should become a member of the EU, which was supported by 58.18 percent of those that filled out a questionnaire.

Over the past three weeks while the survey was being conducted, Tisza's activists were attacked by their stands on several occasions. In Dunaegyháza, for example, the volunteers were harassed by Fidesz’s mayoral candidate, while in Pesterzsébet the same was done by a former confidant of a murdered mafioso. In Rakamaz, someone slowly drove a car into one of the party's stands, while at Budapest's Kelenföld railway station a man threatened to hang the activists.

"We are very much looking forward to hearing the results, we volunteered too," a young couple we spoke with on the quayside said. They said that their stand was in a small, rural settlement, and that they had not experienced any atrocities similar to those suffered by other Tisza volunteers during the campaign. They are hopeful that the results will help in the preparation of the programme of the party preparing for the 2026 elections. "We are very hopeful that the election will be successful, because there hasn't been an opposition force like this one in a long time," the wife said, adding that it was her "last hope". She has some doubts, but she hopes that the elections will be clean. “If there will be no change, we will probably move to some other European country.”

Presenting the results, the party's leader, Péter Magyar announced that a total of 1 million 137,266 people answered the questions in the survey. He pointed out that thanks to their volunteers they were able to reach all 3155 municipalities in the country, with a total of more than 10,000 deployments. "We had a day when we were simultaneously present in 671 locations". He thanked the volunteers for taking The Voice of the Nation to every corner of the country and promised that Tisza would hold a referendum on Ukraine's EU accession.

According to the Tisza chairman, Fidesz is terrified and will do everything in their power to win between now and the elections scheduled for next April. "We have over half a million more voters than Fidesz. Comrade Prime Minister, the dance has only just begun, the tide has turned," Magyar said, referring to the latest opinion polls, which show Tisza 6 points ahead of Fidesz among the overall population, making them the party with the most supporters. He added that the playing field is not levelled though, so his party will have to "run the marathon differently".

"Tonight is not the end of a campaign, it is not the end of a cause," the Tisza Party President said, adding that more than 1 million voters have sent a message to their country and have defined the main tasks of the future Tisza government.

These answers will become the cornerstones of the Tisza government programme, Péter Magyar said. He stressed that "our country will once again be a proud and reliable ally of NATO" and "will once again be a full member of the European Union".

He vowed that the Tisza government would bring home the EU funds which have been blocked because of the government's corruption. He also announced that the length of time a prime minister would be allowed to spend in office would be limited to eight years and that the prime minister's monthly salary would be reduced to two and a half million forints (EUR 6100 – Parliament recently voted to raise the prime minister's salary to 7,1 million HUF per month, which currently equals around EUR 17,300). Magyar justified the latter by saying that "while we are in a "living wage crisis", the country's leaders should not be earning more and more every year".

Magyar concluded by promising that "Tisza will win the elections, not by a little, but by a lot".