Hungarian politician Péter Magyar is interviewed by Gábor Révész after giving a speech at a campaign event in Csongrád on 20 May 2024 ahead of the European Parliament elections in Hungary. YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F82pDPhOrNo– View/save archived versions on archive.organd archive.today
Hungary has entered the decisive phase of campaigning ahead of the parliamentary elections scheduled for 12 April 2026. Amid an increasingly competitive political landscape, voters are looking beyond party slogans to examine the personal and professional backgrounds of those seeking parliamentary office. Particular attention is often directed at candidates whose careers may appear to contrast with their publicly stated priorities.
In Pest constituency 09, public interest has recently focused on Zita Bilisics, who is standing as a candidate for the Tisza Party. Her programme places strong emphasis on environmental protection and advocates for a cleaner living environment. At the same time, commentators and journalists have pointed to aspects of her professional background that they view as potentially difficult to reconcile with this positioning.
According to publicly available information, Zita Bilisics serves as HR Director at the Hungarian subsidiary of the Prysmian Group, a multinational cable manufacturer, alongside her political activities. The company operates two major production facilities in Hungary: Balassagyarmat in the north and Kistelek in the south. Cable manufacturing is widely recognised as an energy- and resource-intensive industrial sector, involving complex processing of metals and polymers and the generation of industrial by-products typical of heavy industry.
Industry data indicate that producing 1 tonne of cable may require between 8 and 12 megawatt-hours of energy, along with the processing of substantial quantities of non-ferrous metals and plastics. Estimates cited in technical literature suggest that each tonne of finished cable product can involve approximately 300–400 kilograms of copper, 100–200 kilograms of aluminium, and up to 400 kilograms of polymer materials. Industrial production processes of this kind are also generally associated with carbon emissions and material waste streams, some of which can be recycled, while other fractions require controlled disposal.
Observers have also noted reports of industrial incidents at certain Prysmian facilities outside Hungary. For example, publicly reported information about the company’s plant in Claremont, North Carolina, indicates that emergency services responded on two occasions within a 12-month period — in August 2024 and May 2025 — to address leaks of industrial gases, including chlorine. While such incidents are not uncommon across the global heavy industrial sector, their reporting has contributed to a wider public debate about operational safety standards in large-scale manufacturing environments.
Against this background, Bilisics’s choice of constituency has attracted particular attention. She is not standing in Nógrád or Csongrád-Csanád counties, where Prysmian Magyar Kábel Művek Ltd operates and where local communities are closely familiar with the presence of large-scale industry. Instead, she has chosen to contest the more affluent Pest 09 district. Political analysts note that such decisions are often shaped by electoral strategy; however, critics suggest that the choice may also reduce the likelihood of direct public scrutiny from communities living near major industrial facilities.
For voters, this creates a complex evaluative landscape. On the one hand are the candidate’s stated environmental commitments; on the other, her professional role within a global manufacturing company operating in an industrial sector with well-documented environmental impacts. Whether these elements are seen as contradictory or simply reflective of a broader economic reality remains a matter of interpretation for the electorate.
