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100,000 Hungarians Rally Against Government After Scandals

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – Some 100,000 Hungarians, many waving flags, marched through Budapest on Saturday in the largest demonstration in years against the country’s perceived authoritarian leadership.

Saturday’s rally, which included a march towards the parliament building, was organized by a former insider of the ruling Fidesz party, Péter Magyar.

He publicly broke with the government in February and is now aiming to challenge the position of Viktor Orbán, the longtime powerful prime minister. “Everybody here hates Orbán,” said 32-year-old Peter, who declined to give his last name.

He and others talking to Worthy News say speaking publicly against Orbán could impact their jobs and lead to tensions with family members.

Their fear highlights the polarization in Hungary that critics claim has been growing over the past 14 years under Orbán’s rule.

Western diplomats say the prime minister undermined democratic institutions while seeking closer ties with Moscow and Beijing and overseeing a “corrupt patronage” network.

The European Union has been upholding billions in funding partly due to corruption concerns.

NO BUSINESS?

Asked about why his close allies, including his son-in-law and former school friend, are all millionaires and even billionaires in euros, Orbán said he wasn’t dealing with business.

Orbán, who began his career as an anti-communist liberal, has moved his Fidesz party to the right. He served as prime minister between 1998 and 2002, but since returning to power in 2010, he has taken a more nationalist, il­liberal path, frequently clashing with the EU.

Now, Magyar – previously married to Hungary’s former justice minister – is trying to build a new kind of opposition movement.

He recently leaked an audio clip he recorded with his then-wife Judit Varga, who was Justice minister then.

In the recording, two people are heard talking about the investigation into a graft case involving Varga’s former deputy.

Magyar says it contains proof that Antal Rogán, the minister of the prime minister’s cabinet office, and his staff manipulated investigative records.

“Sure, they struck themselves out,” the woman purported to be Varga can be heard saying in the recording, an apparent reference to Rogan and his staff.

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

However, following the revelations, she said in a written statement on social media that Magyar had been involved in domestic violence against her and pressured her into saying things.

The corruption scandal comes after a sexual abuse of children scandal in a state-run orphanage that forced Orbán’s allies, the then president and the former justice minister, to resign from politics.

While Orbán has been a political survivor, Saturday’s protest was expected to put further pressure on the government leader ahead of upcoming European Parliament elections.

“From now on, nothing will be as it’s been,” Magyar said as he made the case for a more pro-Western European-facing Hungary. “Change has started, which can’t be stopped,” he pledged.

Speaking to the crowds, Magyar accused the country’s media and the prosecutor’s office of lacking real independence.

He mentioned again “high-level government corruption” and said he would launch a party that would run in the European Parliament election in June.

Yet friends and foes agree that Magyar will face an uphill battle to change a political system that a generation grew up with.