Tens of thousands of people protested in Budapest on Friday at the biggest rally against Viktor Orbán’s government for years, after a sexual abuse case pardon by President Katalin Novák caused public uproar and led to her resignation.
The conservative Hungarian prime minister, who has been in power since 2010, has sought to defuse the week-long scandal that brought down two of his key political allies, the president and the former justice minister, Judit Varga, but it has continued to dominate domestic media.
The turmoil poses no immediate threat to Orbán’s rule with 2026 elections still far off, but it comes ahead of European parliament elections in June in which his party is hoping to gain from a rise in far-right support across Europe.
The uncovering of the pardon triggered a public outcry, and nine online influencers, among them the popular singer Azahriah, called for a protest in Budapest’s Heroes’ Square.
Tens of thousands of demonstrators, including many young people, squeezed into the huge square, with more filling the avenues leading towards it and others still marching there.
“We have had enough. We need change, this government is full of lies and hypocrisy,” said Jozsef Molnar, 64, who added that his 19-year-old son was also out protesting. Molnar said the last time he went to a protest was in 1989 when communism collapsed.
“We are here for the future and our grandchildren,” he said.
The organisers of the protest asked in a Facebook post: “How many more similar issues are there that we don’t know about, and that have been covered up?
“Irrespective of the [political] sides, we believe it is important for us to speak out in support of a protection of the victims [of abuse], transparency, human dignity and honest public dialogue,” they wrote.
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The motives behind the pardoning of a man who helped cover up sexual abuse in a children’s home remain unclear.
Orbán’s ruling Fidesz party tried to win back the narrative, saying mistakes on its side had consequences, as the president resigned, unlike those made by the opposition. He is expected lay out his policy agenda in a speech on Saturday.
Orbán’s chief of staff, Gergely Gulyás, told a briefing earlier on Friday that the president and the former justice minister took responsibility for the issue and the government considered the matter closed. It was important “to look into the future” and the government would look to tighten child protection regulations, he said.