Budapest Protests Pardon

Tens of thousands protested in central Budapest against a presidential pardon in a child abuse case that is becoming the biggest political crisis Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has faced since his return to power in 2010.

Meanwhile another prominent Hungarian figure resigned, following President Katalin Novak and former justice minister Judit Varga -- who both stepped down.

Calvinist Bishop Zoltan Balog announced his resignation as the head of Hungary's largest Protestant church after coming under pressure for supporting Novak's pardoning of the accomplice of the director of a children's home convicted of abusing kids and adolescents in his care.

Balog had also previously served as a government minister.

Tens of thousands of people crowded Budapest Heroes' Square to protest the pardon.

The demonstration was organized by popular personalities from the music and cultural scene and online influencers.

Peter Magyar, lawyer, new opposition leader said "The majority of the Hungarian people have lost confidence in the entire political elite that has governed the country for thirty years."

"Every aspect of our lives, even the regulation of childbirth, has been decided by gray-haired, paunchy men of retirement age," he added.

Two weeks ago, independent news site 444 revealed that Novak pardoned a former deputy director of a children's home.

He was sentenced in 2022 to three years and four months in prison for helping to cover up his boss sexually abusing kids and adolescents there.

Though the scandal is not expected to force out Orban, public outrage has been amplified by the fact that Novak, a former minister for family affairs, had been the face of the government's key "family-friendly" policies.