Orbán’s rival leads protest over alleged child abuse in Hungary’s state-run institutions

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán ‘s main challenger on Saturday led tens of thousands of demonstrators through the streets of Budapest in a protest over alleged child abuse in state-run juvenile institutions, an issue that has already shaken Orbán’s government following a scandal last year.

The demonstration, called by Orbán’s top rival, Péter Magyar, came in response to videos published this week depicting employees of a juvenile correction facility in Budapest physically abusing children housed there. The former head of the facility, who is in police custody on suspicion of operating a prostitution ring among other crimes, has also been accused of subjecting minors to physical and sexual abuse.

Police raided the correction center this week, though critics have accused Orbán’s government of failing to act despite reports of misconduct going back years. Magyar, whose center-right Tisza party is polling ahead of Orbán’s Fidesz in most independent surveys, has jumped on the case and accused the government of failing to protect vulnerable children, and called on Orbán to resign. Elections are expected to take place in April.

The Hungarian government’s communications office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The crowd Saturday gathered in cold temperatures in central Budapest and marched solemnly across the Danube River. Many marchers lit torches as dusk fell, and began climbing toward Orbán’s offices on Castle Hill.

One marcher, Sándor Horvát, who traveled some 200 miles (325 kilometers) to the protest from Tiszabecs on the Ukrainian border, said he believed Orbán’s government “will be gone” by the time of elections.

“In other countries, the entire government would have fallen over this scandal. But here we see them clinging to power tooth and nail,” he said.

The abuse of minors in state-run institutions has previously caused a political crisis for Orbán’s government. In 2024, Hungary’s president, Katalin Novák, and justice minister, Judit Varga, resigned amid public outrage stemming from their endorsements of a pardon for a man convicted of helping cover up cases of child sexual abuse in a public orphanage.

The scandal represented a rare moment of weakness for Orbán, who has led Hungary with near total power since returning to office in 2010. Magyar, a former insider within Orbán’s Fidesz party, burst into Hungary’s political spotlight as the case unfolded, accusing the government of misconduct and corruption.

Addressing the crowd assembled outside the government’s executive headquarters on Saturday, Magyar drew parallels between last year’s pardon scandal and the more recent child abuse allegations, saying: “Twenty-two months ago, a country put a question to the Hungarian government: Can it change and improve the situation of children, or will it remain an accomplice of child abusers?”

“Orbán’s government promised everything, but since then, unfortunately, it turned out that every member of the Orbán government took the side of the abusers,” Magyar said.

Orbán’s government has condemned the physical abuse seen in the published videos while arguing that the cases of child abuse coming to light showed that Hungary’s child protection system was working effectively to root out wrongdoing.

Still, several government figures, including Orbán, have emphasized that the juvenile residents of the facility had been placed there because they’d committed crimes or engaged in other misconduct, depicting the institution as a prison for minors.