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Orbán challenger Magyar on Tuesday in Budapest
Photo: Denes Erdos/dpa
Thousands of demonstrators in Budapest demanded the resignation of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. A few thousand people initially gathered in front of the General Prosecutor's Office building in the Hungarian capital, but later the crowd grew significantly as it moved towards Parliament.
Peter Magyar, former husband of Orbán's former Justice Minister Judit Varga, called for this. He described Orbán as the “head of the mafia state.” Magyar had previously published a secretly recorded private conversation with his then wife. This is intended to prove that Orbán's government tried to cover up the involvement of Antal Rogan, minister and head of Orbán's cabinet office, in a corruption case. Varga, in turn, accused her ex-husband Magyar of having provoked the compromising statements.
"We will not allow the biggest political and legal scandal of the last thirty years to be covered up," Magyar shouted to the crowd and also called for the resignation of Attorney General Peter Polt.
The public prosecutor's office has been investigating the corruption case since 2021. A state secretary in the Ministry of Justice, which was then led by Varga, is said to have accepted large amounts of bribes. Varga was considered a close political companion of Orbán. She was Minister of Justice until June 2023. She resigned to lead her party Fidesz's list in the European elections. She resigned from that position earlier this year in the wake of a pedophilia scandal.
The scandal, which also caused Hungarian President Katalin Novák to resign, has been causing protests in Hungary for weeks. Since his ex-wife's withdrawal, Magyar has made sharp attacks on Orbán and his government.
Orbán's chief of staff speaks of "marital dispute"
In the morning, Magyar published a two-minute recording on an online service in which two people talked about the investigation into a corruption case in which Varga's former deputy is involved. According to Magyar, it is a conversation from January 2023 between him and Varga that shows that the investigation was manipulated.
Varga then stated that Magyar had forced her to make the statements. The government did not initially respond to the publication of the video, whose authenticity the AFP news agency was unable to verify. A "marital dispute" has "nothing to do with public life," said Viktor Orbán's chief of staff, Gergely Gulyas.
At a demonstration last week, Magyar had already clearly opposed Orbán's anti-EU policies. There is an “oligarchy” in Hungary that is ruining the country, said Magyar. Hungary must get closer to its Western allies again; public prosecutors and the media must become independent of politics again. Magyar also spoke out in favor of Hungary joining the European Public Prosecutor's Office - which Orbán is against.
According to a survey by the Median polling institute, Magyar could now hope for nine percent of the vote in an election - which would make a party led by him the strongest force in the fragmented Hungarian opposition.
aka/AFP/dpa