Orbán challenger leads protest calling for little one safety after sexual abuse scandal in Hungary | EUROtoday

An aspiring challenger to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán renewed his requires change Friday as he led a protest of a number of thousand individuals demanding a extra strong little one safety system and the resignation of Orbán’s authorities.

The demonstrators gathered outdoors Hungary’s Interior Ministry in Budapest and referred to as for its head, Sándor Pintér, to step down over what they see as his failure to stop the sexual abuse of youngsters in state-run establishments, a criminal offense which has led to political upheaval in Hungary in current months.

Peter Magyar, a 43-year-old lawyer who has emerged as a brand new voice of opposition to Hungary’s right-wing authorities, took intention at Orbán’s portrayal of himself as a defender of households and conventional values, and referred to as for real reforms to deal with little one welfare.

“We have a authorities that claims to be household pleasant. It is a authorities that pretends to be Christian. A authorities that lies about being child-friendly. A authorities 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 large anti-government protests that Magyar has mobilized in recent weeks, and comes as the political newcomer is campaigning for European Union elections this June with his new party, Respect and Freedom (TISZA). He has called for Orbán and his government to step down, and vowed to represent a third option for Hungarians disillusioned by both Orbán’s 14 years of governance and Hungary’s fragmented and ineffectual opposition parties.

A one-time insider within Orbán’s Fidesz party and the ex-husband of former justice minister and Orbán ally Judit Varga, Magyar shot to prominence when he publicly accused the government of corruption and cronyism following a child sexual abuse scandal that led to the resignations in February of the president and justice minister.

The scandal erupted after it was revealed that the former president, Katalin Novák, had issued a presidential pardon to a man convicted of trying to cover up child sexual abuse in a rural youth home. The case went to the heart of Orbán’s image as a Christian conservative who protects families and children from what he calls “LGBTQ propaganda.”

Magyar on Friday said that Hungary’s child protection policies, which have been criticized for conflating homosexuality with pedophilia and abridging the rights of sexual minorities, have allowed abuses to go on unpunished, and demanded that Orbán apologize to the survivors of abuse in the orphanage.

Hungary’s government has dismissed Magyar as an opportunist seeking a new career after he lost several positions in state companies following his divorce with the former justice minister. But his message has had wide appeal, and opinion polls showed that his new party is likely to gain seats in the European Parliament in June elections.

László Horváth Etele, one of the demonstrators on Friday, said he sees Magyar as capable not only of mounting a real challenge to Orbán, but of disrupting the opposition parties that have been unable to unseat him in 14 years.

“To have the ability to defeat the at the moment reigning authorities, this opposition must be modified. The present Hungarian opposition was solely capable of ship a two-thirds majority for Fidesz,” he mentioned. “I think that whoever loses so many times in a row should leave the field and give his place to new challengers who may have a chance.”