Budapest, Hungary — An aspiring challenger to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán renewed his calls for change on Friday as he led a protest of several thousand people demanding a more robust child protection system and the resignation of Orbán’s government.
Protesters gathered in front of the Hungarian Interior Ministry in Budapest and called on its boss, Sándor Pintér, to resign over what they consider to be his failure to prevent the sexual abuse of children in state institutions, a crime that has led to political upheaval in Hungary in recent months.
Peter Magyar, a 43-year-old lawyer who has emerged as a new voice of opposition to Hungary’s right-wing government, took aim at Orbán’s image of himself as a defender of families and traditional values, and called for genuine reforms to address the children’s situation. well-being.
“We have a government that claims to be family-friendly. It is a government that pretends to be Christian. A government that lies about being child-friendly. A government that lies about being pro-peace,” Magyar told the crowd. “The opposite is true. They lie in the morning, they lie at night, they lie everywhere they can.”
The demonstration was the latest in a series of major anti-government protests that Magyar has mobilized in recent weeks and comes as the political newcomer campaigns for the European Union elections next June with his new party, Respect and Freedom. (TISZA). He called for the resignation of Orbán and his government and promised to represent a third option for Hungarians disillusioned with both Orbán’s 14-year rule and Hungary’s fragmented and ineffective opposition parties.
A former member of Orbán’s Fidesz party and ex-husband of former Justice Minister and Orbán ally Judit Varga, Magyar rose to prominence when he publicly accused the government of corruption and cronyism following a child sexual abuse scandal that led to his dismissals in February of the president and minister of justice.
The scandal erupted after it was revealed that former president Katalin Novák had granted a presidential pardon to a man convicted of trying to cover up the sexual abuse of children in a rural youth home. The case struck at the heart of Orbán’s image as a Christian conservative who protects families and children from what he calls “LGBTQ propaganda.”
Magyar said on Friday that Hungary’s child protection policies, which have been criticized for confusing homosexuality with pedophilia and restricting the rights of sexual minorities, allowed abuse to continue with impunity and demanded that Orbán apologize to survivors of abuse at the orphanage.
The Hungarian government considered Magyar an opportunist looking for a new career, after he lost several positions in state-owned companies following his divorce from the former Justice Minister. But his message had wide appeal and opinion polls showed that his new party is likely to win seats in the European Parliament in the June elections.
László Horváth Etele, one of Friday’s protesters, said he sees Magyar as capable not only of mounting a real challenge to Orbán, but of upsetting the opposition parties that have failed to unseat him in 14 years.
“In order to defeat the currently reigning government, this opposition needs to be changed. The current Hungarian opposition only managed to obtain a two-thirds majority for Fidesz,” he said. “I think that anyone who loses so many times in a row should leave the field and give their place to new challengers who might have a chance.”
This story originally appeared on ABCNews.go.com read the full story
