Orbán’s government has been rocked by several child-abuse scandals in recent years.
Published on December 13, 2025
Thousands of Hungarians took part in demonstrations in Budapest demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán over his inaction on the country’s repeated child-abuse scandals.
Since returning to power in 2010, Orbán has pledged to prioritize the protection of children in Hungary, but several high-profile Child abuse scandals His government has been rocked in recent years.
Saturday’s protest, led by Peter Magyar, leader of the opposition TISZA, comes after fresh allegations in September about a juvenile detention center in the country’s capital, Budapest. Footage from a security camera at the center showed the director of the Zolo Street Juvenile Detention Center kicking a boy in the head.
Earlier this week, four staff members were detained and the government announced that it would place all such child facilities under direct police supervision.
On Saturday, “Protect the Children!” Thousands of demonstrators marched through the frosty streets of Budapest behind banners that read: And urged the government to take more action against the culprits. Some people carried soft toys and torches in solidarity with victims of physical abuse in a case several years ago.
On Friday, Magyar also released a previously unpublished official report for 2021, which found that more than a fifth of children in state-run care institutions had been abused.
“We should be outraged at what is being done to the most vulnerable children,” Zsuzsa Szalay, a 73-year-old pensioner who took part in Saturday’s protest, told the AFP news agency.
Orbán’s government It insists that action is being taken on suspicion of child abuse.
The prime minister, who faces what could be the toughest challenge to his 15-year rule in elections in April, condemned the abuse in an interview with news outlet Mandarin, calling it unacceptable and criminal. He added that “(very) young criminals should not be treated this way”.
But protesters on Saturday said Orbán’s response was insufficient.
“Normally the government would be overthrown after a case like this,” 16-year-old David Kozak told AFP.
Last year, the country’s president, Katalin Novak, also bowed to public pressure and resigned after pardoning the deputy director of a government boys’ school whose director had been convicted of covering up sexual abuse.
“For them, the problem is not that the abuse happened, but that it was exposed,” Kozak added.