Tens of thousands protest Hungary child abuse pardon

By AFP
February 16, 2024

A scandal over a presidential pardon for an accomplice in a child sexual abuse case is is proving to be the biggest political crisis Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has faced since his return to power in 2010 - Copyright AFP Marvin Recinos

Tens of thousands protested Friday in central Budapest against a presidential pardon in a child abuse case that is becoming the biggest political crisis Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has faced since his return to power in 2010.

Meanwhile another prominent Hungarian figure resigned, following President Katalin Novak and former justice minister Judit Varga — who both stepped down on Saturday.

Calvinist Bishop Zoltan Balog announced his resignation Friday as the head of Hungary’s largest Protestant church after coming under pressure for supporting Novak’s pardoning of the accomplice of the director of a children’s home convicted of abusing kids and adolescents in his care.

Balog had also previously served as a government minister.

Later Friday, tens of thousands of people crowded Budapest Heroes’ Square to protest the pardon.

“They (the government) should stop feeling that everything is permitted,” a 65-year-old retired teacher who only gave her name as Margit said.

Laszlo Risko, a 50-year-old office worker, said the government under Orban had “taken the trampling of democratic rights to its zenith”.

The demonstration was organised by popular personalities from the music and cultural scene and online influencers.

“The Hungarian state has failed. There is no transparent, thorough and independent investigation to clarify responsibility,” Edina Pottyondy, one of the organising influencers, said in a fiery speech.

In a press conference Friday, Orban’s chief of staff Gergely Gulyas insisted the prime minister did not have knowledge of the pardon until last week.

“The prime minister himself learned about the affair in the press,” he said.

Orban has not spoken on the scandal this week, but was set to deliver his annual state-of-the-nation speech on Saturday.

Two weeks ago, independent news site 444 revealed that Novak pardoned a former deputy director of a children’s home.

He was sentenced in 2022 to three years and four months in prison for helping to cover up his boss sexually abusing kids and adolescents there.

Though the scandal is not expected to force out Orban, public outrage has been amplified by the fact that Novak, a former minister for family affairs, had been the face of the government’s key “family-friendly” policies.