How Tisza Became Hungary’s Political Startup

In 2024, the Tisza Party entered the Hungarian political arena from nowhere — a “market” that had until then been dominated by a single player, Fidesz, with a significant advantage in resources and four decades of experience. In just two years, Tisza broke through this structure and defeated the party that had held a monopolistic position. From the perspective of conventional political logic, this is difficult to explain. It is no coincidence that, in recent days, dozens of influential foreign politicians have reportedly asked Péter Magyar the same question: how did you do it — what is your secret? There are many reasons behind the victory. Here, however, we highlight one of the most important perspectives: the Tisza Party operates like an innovative startup that entered a monopolised market disruptively and is fundamentally rewriting its rules. As with every similar startup, technological and operational innovation played a decisive role in Tisza’s success.

A disruptive startup is a company that fundamentally changes the operating logic of a market and displaces incumbent players. Netflix used streaming to dismantle the physical video-rental model. Uber connected passengers directly with drivers through an app and, in many American cities, has by now undermined a significant part of the traditional taxi industry. Spotify does not sell music; it made access the dominant model in the music industry and effectively eliminated the CD. Revolut gained two million customers in Hungary without bank branches or traditional advertising and became a dominant market player.

Before the digital age, political operation was built on a closed, highly centralised system. Parties reached voters through television, radio, billboards and the printed press — through journalists and editorial institutions. Whoever controlled the media could win elections. Political messages were therefore one-directional, while voters functioned largely as passive recipients.

Party organisations were hierarchical, with local branches, slow decision-making, strong internal control and strict HR policies. Their operation required substantial infrastructure and resources: money — an extraordinary amount of money — organisations, headquarters and physical presence. Over the past 40 years, the fundamental function of the economic interest groups surrounding parties was to generate the funds required for electoral victory: initially tens of billions, later hundreds of billions of forints.

In 2024, apart from his most committed supporters, almost no one took Péter Magyar seriously according to the old political logic. His movement started as a one-man show, without significant financial resources or major institutional backers. Two years later, however, he had succeeded in recruiting strong parliamentary candidates, 20,000 polling-station delegates and 50,000 unpaid volunteers — and in winning the election.

Above all, this required a “nothing to lose” mindset, which is one of the core assets of successful early-stage ventures. It is precisely this mindset that creates the conditions for innovation and bold experimentation. What innovative solutions contributed to the success of this startup party?

Online Fundraising

Since 2010, GoFundMe has raised USD 40 billion from one billion individual donors. Online giving has fundamentally changed donation behaviour. People can respond to a personal story; donating strengthens the feeling of belonging to a community; and the message can be shared further on social media platforms.

With the help of social media, an emotionally powerful story can generate millions of organic views within days, thereby expanding the base community of donors. One-click payments, recurring donations, bank card and Apple Pay integration all support fast, efficient, impulsive and emotionally driven giving.

The Tisza Party generates HUF 250 million in monthly revenue from small private donations, entirely through online interfaces or its app. In the community fundraising campaign for police officer Bence Szabó, HUF 200 million was raised in a single day. Online fundraising has completely rewritten the previously rather passive donation habits of Hungarians.

Social Media

In traditional media dominated by old parties, credibility is often substituted by institutions. Viewers do not necessarily assess the individual speaker; they consider the channel itself — a television station or newspaper — to be credible.

On social media, however, the success of reach is not primarily determined by massive spending, but by activity. Content reaches large audiences when it triggers intense reactions within a short period of time, generates conversation and is then distributed by the community itself. This behaviour depends largely on whether the message feels real, honest and personal.

If content is overly edited or PR-like, it generates fewer interactions, and the algorithm will not distribute it widely. In social media, therefore, authenticity is not a moral category but a condition of distribution: what feels authentic spreads.

In the spring of 2026, Tisza’s organically operating, social-media-native campaign stood opposite old-style, top-down messages pushed with substantial financial resources and force. These messages did not encourage interaction and, judging by reach figures, simply did not work. The governing party’s “offline” attempts to increase social media activity also repeatedly failed. First, online activity cannot be effectively increased with offline tools. Second, the integrity of the messages was insufficient, so supporters did not actively engage with the campaign.

The App

Just as Revolut, Uber and Airbnb are inseparable from their apps, the Tisza Party’s app has become a core tool for sympathisers, volunteers and supporters to connect with the party, interact with it and increase their level of activity.

Today, even older age groups are capable users of apps. Old parties had their party headquarters as symbols. Tisza has its app. A good app is cost-efficient, enables rapid scaling, is secure and convenient.

Network-Based Operation

Airbnb grew from a few thousand listings to ten million within a matter of years: in 2009, there were only around one thousand properties on the platform; today there are ten million — all without building a single hotel. Wikipedia is edited by volunteers from around the world according to a shared system of principles: coordination is digital, and quality assurance is community-based and consensus-driven.

Thanks to its decentralised, network-based operation, Tisza was able to field 108 parliamentary candidates and mobilise 50,000 volunteers in a short period of time. According to the old party logic, it was completely unimaginable that 50,000 people could be processed through a centrally controlled HR system within a few months, their reliability checked, and then subjected to strict accountability — as party logic had operated for decades.

Tisza abandoned centralised operation almost entirely, primarily due to lack of time, and created a flat, highly extensive network. In practice, it accepted almost anyone as a volunteer. Its operation is similar in certain respects to Greenpeace’s volunteer network.

The party turned volunteering into something fashionable and communicated its benefits effectively, primarily through the app and social media. As a result, it very quickly gained access to 50,000 unpaid workers. Quality assurance was outsourced almost entirely to volunteer coordinators.

Did trust ultimately produce better results than strong control? Based on the results, the answer is clear. At the same time, it is important to note that full emotional identification requires integrity in the party’s operation. If internal doubts remain among supporters, then only force, money or other “hard” incentives remain available as tools.

The above clearly shows that innovative and efficient party operation based on new principles is possible only if the political product itself has been designed accordingly — that is, if supporters find it credible, honest and desirable. The ancient rule of marketing applies here as well: do not try to sell a finished product; shape it to the needs of your consumers and, of course, to the logic of your distribution channels.

Disruptive companies have dismantled monopolistic corporate markets and created new rules of the game. In doing so, they increased competition and shook up — sometimes eliminated — complacent incumbents. Consumers also benefit from this change: stronger competition, better products and lower prices.

The emergence and victory of the Tisza Party created real competition in what had previously functioned as a political monopoly market. From this point on, it will be very difficult to win elections using the old toolkit. With innovative political tools, it has now become easier to establish a party or movement and to broaden competition within the political landscape.

Ultimately, this contributes to the fulfilment of democracy.

Zsigmond Varga

“Democracy is the worst form of government — except for all the others that have been tried from time to time.”

— Winston Churchill