Magyar ‘is not what he seems’, ex-girlfriend says

“It wasn’t down to Peter alone that he got to where he is; very good people were behind him… These people whom I worked with … had faith, they believed in change for the better,” she said, adding that it wasn’t political ends that motivated them.

Their relationship started well, she said, but later became “stormy”, and they broke up last September. He proposed to her a month later but she said no, Vogel said, adding that she could no longer identify with Magyar, whose words and actions were at odds.

Magyar told her that he had resigned from his posts in government circles voluntarily, she said, insisting she was no longer sure whether this was true or not. He “only went public because he had nothing left to lose,” she added.

“He’s not really a brave person… He always had a big mouth, but when it comes down to it, he plays it safe,” Vogel said.

She said she had mobilised her network of contacts as Magyar, once he had attacked the government system, no longer had any.

Vogel said Magyar had not had any qualms about using the audio recordings he made of his ex-wife, the former justice minister Judit Varga, and he had not revealed their content to her at the time. He thought the tapes were “a much stronger trump card” compared to the effect they ended up having, she said.

Meanwhile, Vogel said she had introduced to Magyar a businessperson who works as the party’s treasurer. Magyar “still listens” to this individual, whom she did not identify. The person provides Magyar with information from government circles, she insisted.

Magyar, she said, concentrated on himself, while his team tried to build the party organisation. “I was at the receiving end of Peter’s anger and dissatisfaction. He wasn’t there with us, he didn’t work with the others…” she said, accusing him of negativity and badmouthing members of his own team.

Vogel said their relationship deteriorated and she did not accompany him on his nationwide tour.

She recalled an argument between them while her child was sitting in the car. “He started yelling at me in the street … and I was scared, I felt threatened … and if I recall right, I started crying then or later. Whatever the case, I saw the child sitting in the car crying.”

Vogel said Magyar’s secret was that he had background that gave him a gloss of authenticity while he had the rhetorical and communication skills to get people interested. “He brought people out of their apathy…” she said.

Asked who the real Magyar was, Vogel said: “I don’t think I dare answer.”

Asked how Magyar would react to her going public, she said: “He’ll be very angry, furious. But he’ll say he expected it, and even that Fidesz was behind it … I don’t know what he’ll do to me, but I hope he won’t hurt my family. I’m not saying he’s capable of absolutely anything, but he’s capable of all sorts of things.”

Magyar: Vogel ‘has been blackmailing me and the Tisza Party since May’

Leader of the opposition Tisza Party Peter Magyar, in response to a critical interview given by his former partner Evelin Vogel, accused her of “blackmailing me and the Tisza Party”. Reacting to comments critical of him she made in the interview published on news portal Index, Magyar insisted that she had since May tried to extort 30 million forints “not only from me but from five colleagues…”

Magyar said on social media that Vogel had got in touch with ruling party Fidesz’s vice-president, Gabor Kubatov, and agreed to peddle propaganda in exchange for 5 million forints each month and other benefits. The Index interview was part of the deal, he added.

He said it was discovered that Vogel had made “audio and video recordings of her conversations and discussions with me and party leaders”. Part of the “dirty agreement” with Fidesz was to hand over these recordings, he added.

Magyar said that despite her threats, he and his staff tried to “protect Evelin Vogel from criminal and political consequences”, and had appealed to her to extricate herself from the agreement made with Fidesz, “but it seems she has decided otherwise”.

“I can’t do anything other than to report the crime of extortion to the competent authorities,” he said.

The politician said what Vogel had done was “a huge disappointment”, adding that he had loved her very much.

Meanwhile, Magyar sent “a message” to cabinet head Antal Rogan, Kubatov and “their master”, Prime Minister Viktor Orban, that “we’re not scared of their Stasi methods, and … no matter what mafia methods they resort to, we will take our country back…”

Asked about their relationship, Magyar said Vogel had been his girlfriend, that he had loved her, and that he had supported her financially since April 2023, even when they were no longer romantically involved.

“[I] had wanted to spend my life with her, but when I asked her for her hand in marriage, she suddenly departed from my life,” he said.

Magyar said he had been under great strain during the “turbulent period” of spring, and he had needed someone by his side whom he could trust and who would support him. “She knew how much stress I was under, but when I really needed her, she wasn’t there for me,” he said.

Magyar said it gradually became clear that “she just saw me as an opportunity”.