"I'm not a big fan, but it's what Hungary needs": Péter Magyar's decisive hour

Special envoy to Debrecen (Hungary)Large speaker towers, a stage, drones, screens and a multitude of staff and volunteers. Péter Magyar's rallies, just two years ago seemed organized with a shoe and a sandal. The stage was a pickup van with a microphone on the trailer. Now they have the appearance of a professional and well-resourced party that believes what the polls say ahead of Sunday's elections: that it could be the future governing party in Hungary.

Two hours before the announced time, the first followers of the opposition leader are already at Debrecen University Square. Hungarian flags and electoral propaganda posters with Tisza candidates begin to be seen. The party also gives away toast with national colors: chives and red pepper separated by white bread. And at a small stall, they sell party merchandise: sweatshirts, t-shirts, caps, bags, pins. Among the public, practically everyone wears the Tisza emblem somewhere.

"It's not the first time we've been to a Magyar event, but we've never managed to be at the very front. So today was the last chance, that's why we came so early," says Tibor, a man around 45 years old. He is surrounded by a dozen people who want to see up close what they hope will be the elected prime minister of Hungary on Monday. "We are hopeful that on Monday there will be a new Hungary, after 16 years. I am more confident than ever that this can happen," he adds, assuring that the political landscape in the country has changed a lot in the last four years. "People are no longer afraid to criticize the government," he says, and celebrates that there is finally a party that truly opposes: "The old opposition was completely... I don't want to say any bad words... but it was absolutely incompetent, and it has been swept away by Tisza".

The city chosen for Tisza's last campaign event is no coincidence. In Debrecen, in the east of the country, is where two years ago a still very unknown Péter Magyar gathered 10,000 people, in what was a stronghold of Fidesz, the party of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. Today, Magyar made them wait. It was almost an hour past the scheduled time when he appeared from the crowd, and he was acclaimed and applauded. He himself began by recalling the importance of that event: "Two years ago, many things began here. We showed for the first time the strength we carry within us. That event in Debrecen represented a real turning point".

"Today we are the strongest political party," he celebrated. And he repeated the messages on which he has based his campaign: "We will free Hungary from everything that Fidesz has poisoned it with so far: from corruption, from exploitation, from incitement to hatred, from arrogance, from presumption, from lies, and from impoverishment".

Magyar, like the thousands of people listening to him, has shown himself convinced of victory. "Tomorrow could go down in Hungarian history books as the last chance we let slip away, but, as it depends on us, April 12 will go down in history books for another reason: it will be the day of victory, the day of Hungary's rebirth".

What hasn't changed about Magyar is the megalomaniac aura he projects. And this, coupled with the fact that he comes from Fidesz, doesn't quite convince everyone that they will vote for him this Sunday. "I'm not a big fan... He's a bit unpredictable and a bit harsh," says Lilla, 19, who will vote for the first time in a national election. Nevertheless, she is one of the many Hungarians who will vote for him despite not being entirely convinced: "He is the one who has the power to unite all the people who are against Orbán, and that's what we need".