Over the past few weeks, a number of videos have been published on YouTube showing or describing the abuse of minors at state-run juvenile facilities in Hungary.
On Friday, opposition leader Peter Magyar published a previously undisclosed government report on more than 3,000 cases of child abuse in the state-run care system. Tens of thousands joined him at a protest march in Budapest at the weekend.
This is not the first time the subject of child abuse has rocked the country and its leaders: In 2024, Hungary’s president, Katalin Novak, resigned after it emerged that she had pardoned the accomplice of a convicted child abuser.
Although Prime Minister Viktor Orban has said that the abuse shown in the recently released videos is unacceptable, it remains to be seen what the government’s long-term response will be and what impact the scandal will have on voters in the run-up to next spring’s parliamentary election.