Hungary's opposition frontrunner Péter Magyar heads into Sunday's election with a playbook shaped by one man's political destruction. Péter Márki-Zay, the opposition candidate who lost to Viktor Orban by 20 points in 2022, told Politico that Magyar has absorbed every lesson from that catastrophic defeat - and is running a fundamentally different campaign because of it.

"What he does - it's better, it's exactly what he learned from our mistakes," Márki-Zay said in an interview from Hódmezővásárhely, the southern Hungarian town where he serves as mayor. "His strategy was built on the experiences of the entire opposition," "Hvylya" reports, citing Politico.

The most consequential lesson involves Ukraine. On Feb. 23, 2022 - one day before Russia's full-scale invasion - Márki-Zay told an independent outlet that Hungary could support Ukraine militarily alongside its NATO allies, including with soldiers "if NATO decides so." Pro-government media weaponized the remark to portray him as a warmonger eager to send Hungarian children to die. Early polls had suggested a tight race; Orban ultimately won 54 percent to 34 percent.

Magyar has taken the opposite approach. Despite Orban's repeated attempts to cast him as a pro-Kyiv candidate, Magyar has opposed both fast-track EU accession for Ukraine and the sending of weapons. He has refused to give Orban's propaganda machine any ammunition on the topic.

Magyar has also imposed an unusually strict communications regime on his Tisza party. Almost all party members are banned from speaking to media; only a select few may give brief public comments. Magyar himself writes his own Facebook posts and delivers "the same speech" at every rally, Márki-Zay said. "He's not afraid of being populist."

The strategy is "very clever," Márki-Zay added, because it means "there's less basis for criticism, less basis for falsified and manipulated recordings." Magyar also has momentum from Hungary's economic weakness and a widespread public perception that corruption pervades Orban's government. "People are very angry, they hate Fidesz so much, this was not the case four years ago," Márki-Zay said.

Also read: Magyar accused Orban of inviting Russian intelligence operatives to meddle in Hungary's elections.