The Charismatic Challenger: Comparing the Perceived Charisma of Viktor Orbán and Péter Magyar Through the Eyes of Their Followers

Personalised and charismatic leadership is one of the key drivers of affective polarization in contemporary democracies—especially in vulnerable regimes such as Hungary (Reiljan et al., 2023)—yet little is known about how citizens perceive charisma in rival political leaders. This paper examines a political moment of historic significance: the rapid rise of opposition leader Péter Magyar, whose movement has, within less than two years, overtaken the ruling party in public opinion polls, posing the most serious challenge to Viktor Orbán’s fifteen-year dominance. Based on a nationally representative survey conducted in August 2025 (N = 1503), the study compares the charisma attribution of Orbán and Magyar across three interrelated dimensions of follower–leader relations: (1) the idealisation of leadership, (2) perceived charismatic behaviour, and (3) emotional attachment within their respective camps (Metz-Plesz, 2023; 2025). The results show that while Orbán’s charisma remains remarkably stable, Magyar’s perceived charisma has reached a comparable level within just one year of political emergence. Emotional identification with Magyar already exceeds that of previous opposition figures, indicating the formation of a new affective community. Regression models reveal that emotional attachment is driven primarily by partisan identity and perceived charismatic behaviour. For Orbán’s followers, collective narcissism—a defensive sense of in-group superiority—and right-wing authoritarianism predict emotional closeness. For Magyar’s supporters, however, participation in online and offline rallies plays a stronger role, while authoritarianism shows an opposite effect. Social dominance orientation did not significantly predict emotional attachment in either camp. The findings suggest that charisma operates according to different social logics in consolidated versus emergent political communities. Orbán’s charisma is embedded in a long-standing, identity-based loyalty network, while Magyar’s rests on rapid affective mobilisation and digital proximity. Both cases, however, illustrate how Hungarian politics is increasingly structured by emotional identification with leaders rather than ideological or programmatic alignments.