At the largest demonstration against Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s administration in years, tens of thousands of Hungarians demonstrated in Budapest on Friday. President Katalin Novak’s resignation was prompted by the public’s outcry over her pardon in a sex-abuse case.
Although the president and former justice minister Judit Varga, two of Orban’s most important political allies, were brought down by a scandal that lasted for a week and persisted in dominating domestic media, the conservative leader, who has been in power since 2010, has attempted to defuse the situation.
Though the elections in 2026 are still a long way, the unrest does come ahead of the June European Parliament elections, which Orban’s party is hoping to benefit from a surge in far-right support across the continent.
Nine online influencers, including the wildly popular singer Azahriah, called for a protest in Budapest’s historic Heroes’ Square in response to the pardon’s revelation, which incited a public outcry. Tens of thousands of protesters, many of them young, crammed into the massive square, while more filled the avenues that led to it and still more marched there.
“We have had enough. We need change, this government is full of lies and hypocrisy,” stated Jozsef Molnar, 64, who also said that his son, 19, was also out protesting. Molnar claimed that the last protest he attended was in 1989, during the fall of communism.
