Sunday 14 / December / 2025
Budapest: Tens of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of central Budapest on Saturday, marching to Prime Minister Viktor Orban's offices demanding his resignation over alleged child abuse in state-run juvenile institutions.
The protesters, seen carrying soft toys and torches, were led by Orban's main challenger, Peter Magyar, who held a banner that said: "Let's protect children."
The protesters walked across the Danube River, with many heading towards Orban's offices on Castle Hill.
"Normally a government would be toppled after a case like this," one protester told AFP news agency. "For them, the problem is not that the abuses happened, but that they were revealed."
What is the scandal rocking the government?
The protest followed the publication of videos this week showing staff at a Budapest juvenile correction facility physically abusing children.
Several employees of the facility have also been detained.
In 2024, Hungary's president, Katalin Novak, and justice minister, Judit Varga, resigned over a pardon granted to an accomplice of a abuser in a public orphanage.
Magyar told the crowd that Orban had promised to improve the situation of children, however, "it turned out that every member of the Orban government took the side of the abusers."
The leader of the Tisza party has steadily risen to become Hungary's most popular politician, and the biggest challenger of Orban's ruling right-wing populist Fidesz party.
Magyar is leading Orban in most independent polls ahead of elections expected in April next year.
The government condemned the abuse and justified its actions, saying that the cases showed the child protection system was functioning.
However, on the streets, the people were not in agreement.
"In other countries, the entire government would have fallen over this scandal. But here we see them clinging to power tooth and nail," one protester told the Associated Press, adding that he believes the Orban government "will be gone" by the time of elections.
