2024-04-07 19:17:10
Tens of thousands of people protested today against Viktor Orbán‘s government in central Budapest, Reuters reported.
The demonstration was led by a lawyer who until recently was close to the Orbán administration but has since created a political movement targeting the Hungarian prime minister.
Protesters marched to parliament in unseasonably warm spring weather, with some chanting: “We are not afraid!” and “Orbán, resign!”.
Many demonstrators wore the national colors of red, white and green, or carried the national flag. Orbán’s party has used these symbols as its own for the past two decades, according to Reuters.
The protest was led by Peter Magyar, 43, who was married to Orbán’s former justice minister, Judith Varga, and who is believed to be planning to start his own party.
Magyar gained widespread publicity in February after making shocking revelations about the internal affairs of the government.
He accused Orbán’s chief of staff, Antal Rogan, of running a centralized propaganda machine.
In addition, Magyar released a tape of a conversation with his ex-wife in which Varga detailed an attempt by Rogan’s senior aide to intervene in a bribery case. Prosecutors are now investigating these claims.
The investigation comes at a politically sensitive time for Orban ahead of June’s European Parliament elections and follows the scandal over alleged cover-ups of sexual abuse at a state-run children’s home that saw two of Orban’s key political allies, former president Katalin Novak and Varga, removed in February. BTA.
According to data from the Median polling agency as of mid-March, 68% of voters have heard of Magyar’s entry into the political arena, and 13% of them say they are likely to support his party.