A third political ally of the Hungarian Prime Minister is forced to resign
A snowballing scandal in Hungary over the pardon of a man convicted of covering up pedophilia in a children's home forced the third resignation in a week on Friday of a key political ally of the country's authoritarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
The departure of Zoltan Balog, a former minister, from the leadership of the Hungarian Reformed Church followed the resignation last weekend of Hungary's president, Katalin Novak, and Judit Varga, a former justice minister and a leading figure in Fidesz, the conservative Orbán's government. ruling party.
All three have been at the forefront of Mr Orban's efforts to present Hungary as a bastion of family values, committed to fending off what Fidesz vilifies as “woke globalists” who want to undermine Christianity and Hungarian sovereignty through LGBTQ -'propaganda' imported from outside. .
However, Hungary's carefully cultivated image as a safe zone for traditional values suffered a damaging blow this month with revelations that a man pardoned last year had been convicted by the director of a state children's home in Bicske of covering up sexual abuse. , near Mr Orban's home village. The crime for which the man was convicted was not made public at the time of his pardon.
Orbán's party, which has won four elections in a row, will not face new elections in Hungary until 2026 and is therefore safely in power. But the scandal has seriously embarrassed the government – and strengthened the prime minister's opponents – ahead of June's European Parliament elections, which Mr Orban had hoped would help him become the leader of a pan- European conservative movement. Ms Varga, the former justice minister, was appointed by Fidesz to lead the European election campaign before her resignation.
The pardon of a man convicted of pressuring victims to withdraw sexual abuse complaints sparked widespread outrage, including among Fidesz supporters.
Tens of thousands of people gathered in central Budapest, the Hungarian capital, on Friday to express their anger over the affair and the government's hypocrisy. It was the largest protest in the city in years.
The fight against pedophilia, which is linked to restrictions on expressions by gays and transgender people in the Hungarian Child Protection Act of 2021, has been central to Orbán's political message for years. In November, his culture minister fired the director of the Hungarian National Museum for organizing a photo exhibition featuring a handful of images of men dressed in women's clothing.
Pressure on Mr Balog to resign as chairman of the Synod of the Reformed Church has steadily increased since the elections This was reported by the independent Hungarian news portal Direkt36 that he had lobbied the president to pardon the convicted deputy director of the children's home. Mr. Balog acknowledged earlier this week that he had supported a clemency petition, but denied submitting it and vowed not to resign.
On Friday, he announced that he was resigning for the sake of the church. “Forgive me for not being alert and careful enough and for not seeing the dangers that lurk in this pardon case for our country, our nation, our church and our president,” he told the synod of the Reformed Church.
Mr. Balog, an influential Calvinist bishop who has been close to Mr. Orban for decades, was instrumental in Fidesz's evolution into a deeply conservative and increasingly authoritarian political force from an anti-communist movement committed to tolerance and dominated by liberals in the world. late eighties. The party now embraces positions that align more with those of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia than with mainstream European opinion.
The furor is unlikely to loosen Orbán's tight grip on power, but it has seriously damaged his ability to control public opinion through a sprawling media machine controlled by and staunchly loyal to Fidesz.
Magyar Nemzet, a particularly zealous Fidesz-controlled media company, has largely ignored the pedophilia pardon scandal. It focused Friday on the attack on the U.S. ambassador to Hungary, David Pressman, who is gay and a favorite punching bag for government loyalists.
Orbán's chief of staff, Gergely Gulyas, emphasized on Friday that the prime minister was not aware of the pardoned man's complicity in the pedophilia case and that he had only learned about it through the press.
Hungary's self-proclaimed role as a wall against liberal values – and also against foreign migrants – has made the small Eastern European country an unlikely beacon for evangelical Christians and far-right Republicans, many of whom move from the United States to Budapest for a while every year to travel. meeting of the Conservative Political Action Conference. Last year's meeting, held in a conference hall in Budapest, featured a sign declaring the venue a 'No Woke Zone'.
Barnabas Heincz contributed reporting from Budapest.