Péter Magyar can make people get out of their armchairs, his MEP candidate says

To what extent are Tisza Party MEP candidates given a free hand in the campaign? For example, did you need Péter Magyar's permission before this interview?

No, but we wanted to be more cautious, as none of us are politicians and this is a completely new situation for all of us. We can see how the propaganda machine works, and I was specifically concerned about how I could make statements in my new role without them being twisted. We wanted to prepare ourselves mentally and intellectually for the new role. We had several meetings where we shared experiences and a communication specialist helped us prepare. I was on stage with Péter at several locations on the tour, and he never told me what I could or couldn't talk about.

Péter Magyar has mostly been the one visible from the Tisza Party in recent months. How are you involved in the party's work?

It was a new experience for me to go on the road, I tried to attend several events. I was able to speak at more venues than the other candidates because I had resigned from both of my jobs in April, before the candidate contest concluded. Under the Health Service Act, I would not be able to speak freely about the problems in health care. Before I quit, I needed the permission of the hospital director for all interviews and statements, and he then forwarded my requests to the National Directorate General of Hospitals, where it was decided whether I would be allowed to make a statement.

Is that why you quit both of your jobs in April?

I resigned so that I could speak openly and without retribution about the reality of the situation in health care, and I wanted to focus all my energy on the campaign. After I had been selected as one of the top ten candidates for the European Parliament, I wanted to do everything I could to show that we envision a Hungary which, for example, has a health care programme and where improvements are not made based on a system of cronies and friends in high places.

What is the biggest problem in Hungarian health care today?

The biggest problem is that raising awareness about the problems is not possible. A lot of things are left without consequences, because keeping the false political narrative alive, according to which Hungarian health care is on the same level as that in the West is more important. But the truth is that many specialised practices are closed, 1 million 290,000 people do not have a GP and there is an acute shortage of equipment. Due to hospital debts, there is no bowel suture machine in the operating theatre at two in the morning, which would shorten the operation by forty minutes. For an elderly patient in bad health, how long a surgery takes makes a big difference.

It also occurs that a hospital department is not be able to provide on-call services because there's a shortage of specialists, but they are not allowed to admit this so the figures are embellished instead.

There is no comprehensive health care programme, all that matters is that on paper it looks like everything is fine.

Health care is the competence of member states, and you would be an MEP. What could you do for Hungarian health care in the European Parliament?

Fortunately, the European Parliament is becoming increasingly concerned about health care, and it is no coincidence that it is a central issue in the manifestos of almost all party families. In the current seven-year budget cycle, the European Union has spent twelve times as much money on health programmes as in the previous cycle. That is around HUF 2000 billion. European society is ageing and the number of health care workers is decreasing. A shortage of health workers is projected to cause a crisis by 2030. This will not only affect Hungary and the Central and Eastern European region, but others too. Germany and other wealthier countries, however, will be able to attract workers from the Central and Eastern European region with higher wages and better conditions.

A comprehensive EU plan is needed, otherwise the health care systems of poorer countries are going to collapse.

As an MEP, I would like to keep the issue of the European Health Union on the agenda and I hope to use my medical experience to raise awareness of issues affecting Hungary.

However, the most important decisions and laws affecting health care in Hungary are made in the Hungarian Parliament. Are you planning to stay in Brussels for five years or would you like to move to the Hungarian Parliament after the general election in 2026?

I always start a task by concentrating on that one thing. Right now the EP elections are coming up, and for the time being, I'm thinking about how I can best represent the interests of the Hungarian people in the European Parliament. I am very hopeful that in 2026 there will be a change in Hungarian politics and there will be an opportunity to steer the country's future in a better direction. However, I would like to make it clear that health care reform is not a one-man job. A very strong professional team is needed, and professional groups as well as patient interest groups would need to be involved in the work, because there are many different problems to be solved.

What did you see in Péter Magyar and why did you join his party?

I was there on 6 April in Kossuth Square and when I looked at the people, I saw that maybe something was beginning to happen in the country. I went home after the speeches, looked at my then nine-week-old son and simply felt that as a parent I had a duty to do something to make Hungary a better place for him to live in, so he wouldn't grow up in a system where one can only get ahead through connections and other people's interests.

In what way do you think that Péter Magyar has brought something new or different compared to the political actors of the past years? What is the secret of his success so far?

Many people say that the problems he has brought up have already been formulated by others, but this is the first time that I have seen someone who has seen the corruption of the system from the inside and wants to do something about it and is able to address the people. Péter can make people get up out of their armchairs and can make them see that everything has long been divided among a circle of friends.

What kind of person do you know Magyar to be?

A man with good values, a man who wants to do something, who has a very large lexical knowledge and is very good at raising awareness about the existing problems. Many times he was very tired, very worn out by the end of the day, but at any given minute, all of us could see that he really says what he thinks and in a closed circle he says the same things he's been saying from the platform of his pick-up truck to the wider public.

Didn't Judit Varga's interview change your mind? The former Minister of Justice essentially accused her ex-husband of domestic violence in Péter Hajdú's show.

I watched that programme and was strangely baffled, because Judit Varga never struck me as the sort of person who would go to a programme like that. I do not doubt for a minute that there were problems with their marriage, and Péter hasn't denied that there had been arguments between them.

Judit Varga, for example, talked about how Magyar locked her in a room when she was supposed to go to an official function and one of their kids ended up getting her out.

We don't know the other side of the story, we don't know what locking meant exactly.

What is certain is that Péter Magyar never hit Judit Varga, this was clear from the interview.

It was also clear that the video was ordered for political purposes because the audio recording that Péter had previously released was never mentioned. In fact, there was a moment when Judit Varga mentioned the audio recording and Péter Hajdú deliberately changed the subject. A real reporter should have covered the audio recording as well.

The situation of abused women is a very serious problem in Hungary. I worked as a psychiatric resident for a year and a half, and unfortunately, I met many abused women and saw how difficult it is to get restraining orders. I think it was terrible that the situation of abused women was used for political purposes in this interview.

Based on what Judit Varga said in the interview, don't you see moral concerns about Péter Magyar's public engagement?

I have met Péter in person many times in recent weeks, and I have not seen the traits that Judit Varga described in the interview. Neither have the other candidates I have spoken to about this.

Fidesz is attacking Magyar for having made a secret audio recording of a private conversation with his ex-wife in their home, which he then made public. You don't find that problematic either?

This was not about Péter recording what his wife said, it was about what is happening in the government and how violations unthinkable in a democracy are being committed. I do not think this recording was directed against Judit Varga.

I sincerely believe that Péter was trying until the last minute to protect his wife from the horrible things the government was doing and was trying to make sure she was not involved.

Another goal he may have had with the recording was to highlight how rotten the system was. It was the only way for him to get proof of that.

Let's move on to the next topic! As a candidate with Transcarpathian roots, how do you see the situation of the Hungarian minority in Ukraine?

In the last thirty years, no one has done more harm to the Hungarian minority in Transcarpathia than the current Hungarian government. They use the minority in Transcarpathia for domestic political purposes and try to justify the conflict with the Ukrainian government with the situation of the Hungarian minority. I think that the problems of the minority could have been solved within the traditional framework of diplomacy, as Romania, for example, has managed to do it. However, the Hungarian Government has used the Hungarian minority as a shield and has put them in the crosshairs, and unfortunately, because of this, they have been subjected to atrocities by nationalists. Instead of really protecting the Hungarian minority, the government has only exacerbated the conflict between Ukrainians and Hungarians. Every single thing they did was aimed at gaining as much political capital as possible.

As an MEP, would you support Ukraine becoming a member of the European Union?

For the Hungarians of Transcarpathia, Ukraine's accession to the EU would open up a lot of new opportunities and would definitely serve their interests in the longer term. Just as Hungarians from Transylvania or Slovakia can travel freely, Hungarians from Transcarpathia would find it much easier to visit the motherland. It is a great thing for a Hungarian from Transcarpathia to be able to visit Buda Castle or Lake Balaton.

However, accession is a very complex process, and whether Ukraine can meet the expectations and provide guarantees, for example, in the area of preventing corruption or guaranteeing minority rights should be considered.

I believe that the European Union should strive to give Ukraine the opportunity to meet these conditions as soon as possible and then allow it to join.

However, there certainly are countries which have been waiting for membership for much longer.

If Ukraine were a member of the European Union, the EU would be at war with Russia. Is that not a problem?

Russia is more interested in whether NATO will accept Ukraine as a member. As a health professional, it is difficult for me to judge all aspects of this issue. As an MEP, I will work to develop a more complex position on this issue with the help of experts, and even to bring to the surface aspects that the government hasn't so far. For example, how to end the war in a way that serves the interests of the Hungarian minority is an issue that needs to be resolved. Capitulation does not equal peace, history has shown us that.

As an MEP, would you have voted in favour of the EU resolution calling on member states to speed up the delivery of defence weapons to Ukraine?

I can reiterate that the interests of the Hungarian people must be taken into account in this matter too. As a country bordering Ukraine, we are in a very difficult position, because there is a significant Hungarian minority living in Transcarpathia, and we cannot endanger their lives.

Let's also talk a bit about TikTok. As an MEP, what are your plans for your TikTok page which has over 368,000 followers?

I'd like to continue the health education line and would also present my work as an MEP, but I won't be using the site as a political platform after the election. There are a lot of health issues that I have not been able to talk about because of my previous job and my status in the healthcare system. Now I will have the opportunity to do that, but I would also definitely continue to educate patients because that is very much lacking in Hungary at the moment.

Is TikTok properly regulated? Does the European Parliament have a role to play in this?

My experience is that TikTok screens dangerous and crude content much more than other social platforms. However, I have some concerns from a legal point of view. It is not clear exactly where the huge amount of data that is collected about us when we use TikTok ends up. We need to add safeguards so that the data cannot leave the European Union and is stored safely here. As an MEP, I also want to work on strengthening data protection.

Last year, the European Parliament blocked TikTok on its employees' phones and recommended the same to national governments and other EU institutions. Do you agree with that decision?

I myself have a separate phone for using TikTok, specifically because I am not convinced that this data is currently ending up in the right place.

Why did you choose TikTok then?

My videos are available on the other platforms too, but TikTok is the most popular, it reaches the most people. As a health professional, I can't afford not to use the most popular platform for educational purposes, because then there wouldn't even be this much information available to offset the disinformation and fake news about health-related issues.

One reason why the European Parliament regulated TikTok was to curb its harmful effects on mental health, such as addiction. But you are still using this platform to create educational content. Isn't there a contradiction in that?

It is indeed a Catch-22 situation. However, I have had videos in which I try to raise awareness about conscious use. In Hungary, on average, people spend 3.5 to 4 hours on the Internet, while young people spend that same amount of time on social media. If you add it up, that's almost 24 hours in a week, which means a whole day without sleep.

Should this be limited in some way?

Raising awareness about this is also the responsibility of the content producers. I think that content aimed at young people should be filtered more strictly than it currently is, and it might be worth introducing some kind of time limit for them, because not only can it affect their psychological development if they spend too much time on TikTok, it can also be detrimental to their studies.

It was during the coronavirus epidemic and the anti-vaccination advocates that we really saw how serious the problem of disinformation was for the health sector. What means would you use to address this?

I'm an advocate of education, even if it's not an easy task. Fake news about health often spreads easily because people do not have access to basic education about health. In education, more time should be spent developing digital awareness so that young people are able to recognise and filter out fake news.

During the epidemic, it was clear that the Hungarian health care system was not prepared for such an emergency from a communication point of view, and a lot of important information was withheld.

On the one hand, some questions could not be answered until science proved or disproved them. On the other hand, the government, for political reasons, did not want to show the disastrous conditions in the hospitals and the serious problem of the shortage of nurses. However, this involves the risk of others filling the information void with disinformation.

Polls show you have a good chance of being elected to the European Parliament. What is your plan B if that doesn't work out? It would probably be difficult for you to return to public health care as a politician of the Tisza Party.

That's right. I loved working in patient care and I already miss patients and consultations. Examining patients is not only about pressing their abdomen, listening to their lungs or examining their wounds. Asking about their medical history is an equally important part of it. One of the basic tasks of a doctor is to listen to his or her patients. I've completed my specialist training, I was due to take a specialist examination in surgery in May, which I postponed. If I don't make it to the EP, I will take the specialist exam on the next available date in November. Then I would try to work in health care in Hungary in some form. I trust that I will have the opportunity to do so in the future.