The prime minister of the Hungarian government, Viktor Orban, is in the middle of a huge political scandal after a former ally of his, the ex-husband of ex-minister Judit Varga, Peter Magyar, released a compromising 2-minute recording incriminating them people of the Orban government for corruption, writes Politico.
Judit Varga, one of Orban’s staunchest defenders in the past, surprisingly resigned last month amid the biggest scandal to mar the Hungarian prime minister’s nearly 15-year rule.
Varga was one of Orban’s protégés, but since stepping out of the spotlight, her ex-husband, Peter Magyar, himself a former Orban ally and loyal Fidesz apparatchik, has emerged as the Hungarian prime minister’s main opponent.
On Tuesday, after weeks of harsh criticism of Orban, Magyar released a recording in which his ex-wife can be heard incriminating members of Orban’s government in a corruption scandal.
Magyar claims the two-minute recording, made last year, proves that Orban’s chief of staff, Antal Rogan, a highly influential figure in Hungary, falsified documents in connection with a huge corruption scandal involving Pal Volner , former secretary of state in the Hungarian Ministry of Justice, when Judit Varga was minister. Volner resigned in 2021 after prosecutors indicted him on bribery charges.
The publication of this recording – which Magyar personally took to the prosecutor’s office in Budapest, in front of journalists’ cameras – is the latest twist in a far-reaching political intrigue that has mesmerized Hungary for months.
“This shows us that the justice system is under political influence, after key figures got involved to influence the investigations, and Varga knew about all this,” said opposition politician Katalin Cseh, a member of the European Parliament.
“There is clear evidence that the Hungarian justice system is neither free nor independent. It is also one of the first cases in which a close member of Orban’s entourage speaks,” she added.
A government spokesman in Budapest, Zoltan Kovacs, rejected Magyar’s allegations, and accused the former Fidesz official of “harassing” his ex-wife.
Varga, who announced in February that she was retiring from public life, released a statement on social media on Tuesday saying she was “disgusted” that Magyar had released the recording, accusing him of blackmail and domestic violence. .
She also said she was “terrorized” by Magyar, her husband at the time, and said what he “wanted to hear” on that recording.
Peter Magyar has become Viktor Orban’s fiercest political opponent
Magyar is a former Fidesz apparatchik and former ally of Orban, a lawyer, known publicly in Hungary mostly when he was Varga’s husband.
The two have three children together, and when they were still in Orban’s good graces they were advertised as a “model family” in the pages of magazines and newspapers, as the Hungarian prime minister needed characters for his reactionary ideology.
Magyar has held positions in state councils and held various roles in administration, including the previous Hungarian Presidency of the Council of the EU.
Since Hungary’s last major scandal, which saw Varga and former president Katalin Novak resign, Magyar has emerged as a leading dissenting voice and announced plans to form a new political party.
On March 15, the day of Hungarians, Magyar organized an anti-government rally in the center of Budapest, attended by thousands of people. There, he accused Fidesz of spending millions of euros annually on propaganda.
Despite its rapid emergence as an anti-Orban political force, the Hungarian opposition has so far failed to achieve any serious victory over the Hungarian prime minister, who has managed to consolidate over the years and turn Hungary into a hybrid regime, semi-competitive autocracy.
Editor: Adrian Dumitru
Tags: Viktor Orbans government middle political storm ally released compromising tape
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