Thousands of people protested in Budapest near the parliament on Tuesday, demanding the resignation of the chief prosecutor and Prime Minister Viktor Orban, after a former member of the government accused a senior Orban aide of trying to intervene in a case of corruption, writes Reuters.
Protesters marched from the chief prosecutor’s office to parliament chanting “Resign, resign”, many of them carrying torches.
Peter Magyar previously published a recording of a conversation with Judit Varga, then his wife and Hungary’s justice minister, in which she detailed an attempt by aides to Orban’s chief of staff to remove parts of the documents in -a case of corruption.
The case centers on the former state secretary in the Ministry of Justice, Pal Volner, who was accused in 2022 of accepting bribes from the former head of bailiffs, Gyorgy Schadl. Both pleaded not guilty. Prosecutors are seeking prison terms for the two.
Prosecutors said in a statement that they would review the tape, which Magyar said he recorded in January 2023, and that additional evidence would be collected.
“It is legally and physically impossible to remove and interfere with criminal prosecution documents,” the statement said.
Prosecutors were due to hold a news conference on Thursday.
The allegations come at a politically sensitive time for Orban, ahead of June’s European Parliament elections, and follow a sex abuse scandal that has brought down two of Orban’s political allies – former president Katalin Novak and former Minister of Justice, Judit Varga – last month.
Magyar, 43, a lawyer who has been close to the government, plans to launch a new party to challenge Orban.
“Hungarians thank you … for coming by the thousands tonight … to tell those in power that we have had enough,” he told protesters in a speech.
On the audiotape, recorded at the couple’s home at the time and posted on Magyar’s Facebook page, Varga says aides connected to chief of staff Antal Rogan suggested to prosecutors what should be redacted from documents related to the Volner/Schadl case.
“They told prosecutors what should be expunged, but they (prosecutors) didn’t follow through on that completely,” Varga is heard saying in the recording.
Former justice minister Varga did not dispute the authenticity of the recording in a post on her Facebook page.
“Peter Magyar made a secret recording of his ex-wife, me, in our home, and now he has used this to achieve his political goals. He is not worthy of anyone’s trust,” she wrote.
Government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs declined to answer emailed questions from Reuters about the content of the recording, commenting: “Much ado about nothing.”
Magyar, accused of blackmail and domestic violence
Politico reports that Péter Magyar, a former Fidesz apparatchik and grassroots lawyer, is best known as Varga’s ex-husband. When Hungarian Justice Minister Judit Varga abruptly resigned last month, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán lost one of his star protégés.
The media-savvy Varga was supposed to lead Orbán’s Fidesz party in the European elections and was one of the best-known Hungarian politicians in Brussels. But as she retreated from the limelight, her ex-husband, former Fidesz official Péter Magyar, emerged as a real thorn in Orbán’s side.
The sensational release of the recording – which Magyar presented at the Budapest prosecutor’s office in front of a sea of cameras on Tuesday – is the latest twist in a drama that has transfixed Hungary and provided a rare moment of dissent from Orbán’s iron grip on the country’s political system.
“This shows that the justice system is under political influence, that key figures manipulated the investigations and that Varga knew it,” said opposition politician Katalin Cseh, a Hungarian MEP.
“This is very clear evidence that the Hungarian justice system is not free and independent,” she added. “It is also one of the first cases where someone from Orbán’s inner circle has spoken.” A Hungarian government spokesman, Zoltán Kovács, dismissed Magyar’s claims, accusing the former Fidesz official of harassing his ex-wife.
Varga, who announced in February that she was retiring from public life, issued a statement on social media on Tuesday saying she was “appalled” by Magyar’s release of the recording, accusing him of blackmail and domestic violence.
She said she was “terrorized” by her then-husband and told him what he wanted to hear on the tape.
Orbán’s new enemy
The Vargas, who have three children, have often been featured as a model family in luxury magazines in a country whose government values ”traditional” family values. Magyar, who has sat on state boards and worked in various roles for the administration, including in Brussels during Hungary’s last EU presidency, previously spoke of stepping back to look after their young children when Varga’s career was on the rise.
Following their divorce last year, Varga was expected to move to Brussels as an MEP after the European elections.
But since the double resignation of Varga and President Katalin Novák in February following a controversial sex-abuse pardon case, Magyar has emerged as a prominent voice of dissent in Hungary and has announced plans to form a new political party .
In February, he resigned from the board of MBH Bank, accusing Orbán’s government of “hiding behind women’s skirts” by effectively scapegoating Varga and Novák. The former president pardoned a man who forced children to retract allegations of abuse by the director of a children’s center, while Varga signed the pardon.
On March 15, Hungary’s national day, Magyar organized an anti-government rally in central Budapest attended by thousands of people, where he accused Fidesz of spending the equivalent of hundreds of millions of euros annually on propaganda.
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