Latest news Demonstration in Hungary after abuse cases come to light
More than 50,000 people took to the streets of Hungary's capital Budapest on Saturday to demand the resignation of Prime Minister Viktor Orban after cases of abuse in state-run child and youth institutions came to light. They shouted slogans such as "Orban, get lost!".
14.12.2025, 00:05
SDA
The demonstration was called by opposition leader Peter Magyar, whose Tisza party is leading the polls ahead of the parliamentary elections in the spring. He led the protest march and carried a banner with the words "Let's protect children".
"Normally a government would be toppled in such a case," a 16-year-old demonstrator told the AFP news agency. "For them, the problem is not the abuse cases, but that they have been uncovered," he said, referring to the government.
In his own words, Orban has made child protection a top priority in his policies since returning to power in 2010. In recent years, however, his government has been rocked by several abuse scandals.
Alleged 3000 cases of abuse
A government report published by the Tisza party on Friday in 2021 found widespread abuse in children's homes. It mentions around 3,000 suspected cases of abuse in Hungarian children's homes. This corresponds to more than a fifth of all minors in state care. It was forwarded to the relevant authorities in 2022 "to support their work", as the Ministry of the Interior explained in a statement.
According to the report, more than 320 children in state care were victims of sexual violence at the time, 77 of whom were abused. According to the report, care staff also criticized the fact that police or public prosecutors closed investigations without bringing charges. The reason given for this was usually a lack of evidence.
Most recently, a new case of violence in a juvenile detention center in Budapest made headlines. Images from a surveillance camera showed the director of a youth detention center kicking a boy in the head. Four employees were taken into custody at the beginning of the week and the government placed all such facilities under police supervision. Three other employees had already been arrested earlier, including a former director who is accused of running a prostitution ring.
