More than tens of thousands of people protested today in the center of Budapest against the government of Viktor Orban, and the demonstration was led by lawyer Peter Magyar, who was previously close to the government, but recently launched a political movement against Orban.
Source: Attila KISBENEDEK / AFP / Profimedia
The Hungarian is the ex-husband of Judit Varga, Orban’s former justice minister, and plans to form his own party, and three protesters told Reuters they were drawn to him because he was close to Orban’s government and knows how it works.
“We knew there was corruption, but he says it as an insider and he confirmed it to us,” said one participant of the protest, carrying a Hungarian flag.
The Hungarian became known to the public in February, when he made inflammatory statements about the inner workings of the government. He accused the head of the prime minister’s office, Antal Rogan, of running a centralized propaganda machine.
He also published a recording of a conversation with his ex-wife in which Varga describes in detail the attempt of a senior associate of the head of Orban’s cabinet to get involved in a case of bribery, which the prosecutors are now investigating, reports Hina.
The investigation comes at a politically sensitive moment for Orban, on the eve of the European Parliament elections in June and after the scandal in February with the pardoning of convicts for sexual abuse of children, which led to the resignations of Varga and the president of the country, Katlin Novak.
(Agencies/MONDO)