Child abuse scandal has shaken the image of Hungary’s Prime Minister

(CNN) — Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has been telling his country for years that their children are being targeted by sexual perverts and pedophiles. Now, his government is embroiled in a scandal after it emerged that his president had pardoned a man convicted of covering up sexual abuse in a children’s home.

President Caitlin Novak, Orbán’s loyal but largely impotent ally, resigned last Saturday amid a public uproar over his decision in April 2023 to pardon the deputy director of a children’s home who helped cover up child abuse. He said he made a mistake “Recognizing that the offender did not take advantage of the vulnerabilities of the children he looked after.”

Apparently, Novak’s pardon was signed by Judit Varga, the former Justice Minister. Main candidate of the ruling Fidesz party for the elections to the European Parliament. Varga also resigned. Within days, the only two women who had been part of Orbán’s cabinet resigned. But his resignation did not stop speculations about his government.

Orbán has long presented himself as a cosmopolitan defender of Christian values ​​and a foe of liberalism. With the aid of state and private media under his government’s control, he has campaigned against a wave of gender ideology, mainly coming from the European Union, that seeks to corrupt Hungary’s youth. His message has been echoed by politicians in Washington and Moscow.

But Orbán’s critics say his carefully cultivated image is nothing more than a disguise for a majoritarian form of government designed to enrich a small group of oligarchs.

While the scandal is unlikely to loosen Orbán’s grip on power, it has dealt a blow to Fidesz’s image by revealing that it tolerated the very crimes against children it had vowed to stop. The scandal could also undermine Hungary’s effort to gain greater influence in Brussels in the upcoming European elections.

Since the scandal was exposed last weekend by the Hungarian news site 444.hu, “Orbán has not made any appearances or said anything. It is very unusual for him to remain silent for an entire week,” said Professor Kim Lane Shepel. he said. in charge of international affairs at Princeton University, who met Orbán in the 1990s before his first of four terms as prime minister, making him Europe’s longest-serving leader.

Speculation about the possible involvement of more ministers in the scandal increased when Varga’s ex-husband Peter Magyar publicly accused senior Fidesz officials of allowing women to take the blame.

“I don’t want to be part of a system for even a minute longer in which the real criminals hide behind women’s skirts,” Magyar said in a video interview with Hungarian media Partizan. Which has been viewed by more than two million people.

Magyar said he previously believed in “an ideal in a national, sovereign and civil Hungary”, as Orbán has declared. “However, in recent years and especially today, I have realized that all this is nothing more than a political product, a sweet coating that accomplishes only two things: hiding the functioning of the power factory and heavily To acquire wealth.”

Despite giving little public comment on the scandal, Orbán immediately proposed changing Hungary’s constitution to prevent future amnesty from being granted to anyone convicted in connection with crimes against minors. “For pedophile criminals, there is no mercy!” Orban said.

Critics argue that Orbán’s proposed constitutional solution to the scandal is a symptom of his autocratic style of governance. Because of the two-thirds majority required to amend Hungary’s constitution, Fidesz often revises the constitution that Orbán introduced in 2011. “It can be said that their majority makes them above the law. Anything can change,” Sheppell told CNN.

But the resolution has done nothing to quell anger directed at Orbán’s government. Protests have been ongoing for the past week – a rarity in Hungary – and more are expected ahead of Orban’s annual State of the Union-style address this Saturday. It remains to be seen how he will address this scandal.

A weak “ideology”

The way Orbán became a self-proclaimed “defender” of Christian and especially Catholic values ​​was not entirely premeditated. Orbán was born a Calvinist. According to Scheppel, he is not known to attend church regularly like the majority of the Hungarian population. According to the 2018 Pew Global Attitudes Survey, only 14% of Hungarians say religion is very important in their lives.

Sheppell said, “It is strange that a Christian defends Europe when the population does not observe any religious observance.”

In a speech to Fidesz members in 2014, which was considered secret, Orbán famously said that he intended to transform Hungary into an “illiberal democracy”. After being scolded by the press and his European allies, he soon clarified that he meant “Christian democracy”.

“He said, ‘Oh, well, you know, by conservative I just mean Christian. Christians are not liberal,'” Sheppell said. According to Scheppel, Orbán’s alleged ideology is the result of “whitewashing his dictatorial remarks” in order to make them more acceptable.

Orbán’s critics say that his ideology is weak and inflexible. Despite its largely anti-immigration rhetoric, Hungary allows some people to purchase permanent residence, and welcomes thousands of immigrants from China, Venezuela and other countries in exchange for cash. “When there is something economic at stake, Christianity goes out the window,” Scheppell said.

Orbán’s government has often accused its opponents of being sexually deviant. On the same day as the 2022 Hungarian parliamentary elections, voters were also asked to participate in a referendum on whether they supported promoting material related to children’s sexual orientation.

The referendum included questions such as: “Do you support unrestricted exposure of minors to sexually explicit media material that could affect their development?” Critics said the questions were so leading that no reasonable person would answer “yes”.

Gender studies professor Eva Fodor told CNN that by holding the election and referendum simultaneously, the government implies that those who vote for the opposition are “destroying Hungary by swallowing the gender discourse”. The European Union has imposed it on them. Central European University of Budapest.

Similar referendums have been held since then. Fodor said Hungarians are used to seeing signs that say things like: “99% of people say no to gender ideology. Let’s not dance to the tune of Brussels.”

But since the scandal, the rhetoric used as a weapon by the government has been used against it by protesters. Some have shown banners with the legend: “99% of people say no to pedophilia. They (the government) support pedophilia (and blame us).”

I am wounded, not defeated.

Although the crisis is unlikely to remove Orbán from power, it could derail some of his future political plans. Varga intended to lead Hungary’s “anti-woke” crusade in Brussels ahead of the European elections in June, where Orbán could ensure greater involvement in European affairs if far-right parties performed well.

But Varga’s resignation means Orbán’s project will need a new face. And while Novak’s role was largely ceremonial, the parliamentary process of electing a new president means that the effects of the scandal will not quickly fade from public view.

Still, the government is demonstrating its ability to “turn people’s anger toward Orbán and find a scapegoat,” Fodor said.

Much of the public anger, he said, is directed at Calvinist bishop and former Fidesz cabinet minister Zoltán Balogh, who has been involved in supporting pardons of those convicted of child abuse, for which Balogh has apologized.

“The media is full of people demanding his resignation. And the fact that he has not resigned is actually very good for Orbán, because there is a lot of public hatred building up, and it is growing against Balogh,” Fodor said.

The resilience of Europe’s oldest leaders is often attributed to their ability to avoid scandals. Mark Rutte, the outgoing prime minister of the Netherlands and Europe’s second longest-serving leader after Orbán, has been dubbed a “Teflon brand” for his ability to deal with scandals that fail to stick to them. Does Orban have the same qualities?

“Teflon is not the right metaphor for Orbán,” Scheppel said. “Orbán manages to escape difficult situations… It’s not because things slip, it’s because he has a whole mechanism working beneath the surface to mitigate the onslaught. I suspect That it will happen again.”