The ‘disco rat’ who ousted Orban

Magyar greeting supporters in Orban’s hometown of Felcsut, Hungary, in this file pic. For years, Magyar was a loyal ally of Orban, the far-right Hungarian leader. Then he changed sides and defeated his former boss in a landslide victory. — Akos Stiller/The New York Times

ADDRESSING an audience of just a few hundred people, Peter Magyar, a charismatic but largely unknown lawyer, swayed atop an unsteady flatbed truck two years ago and issued a preposterous command: “Take back our country, step by step, brick by brick.”

The childhood home of Hungary’s seemingly invincible prime minister, Viktor Orban, was just down the road, and the idea that Europe’s longest-serving head of government would allow a jumped-up attorney to tear down his laboriously constructed and very sturdy political movement – a vote-winning machine called Fidesz – seemed absurd.