Viktor Orbán faced a tsunami of public outrage on Saturday as thousands of Hungarians marched on his office in central Budapest in response to this week’s release of video footage from state-run juvenile detention centres showing young inmates suffering severe physical abuse.
The shocking revelations come just four months ahead of national elections, with Orbán’s dominant right-wing Fidesz movement confronting its most serious opposition challenge in years.
Orbán responded to the video release on Wednesday by putting Hungary’s detention centres under police control and launching an official investigation into the abuse. Yet those moves did little to temper the furore over what opposition leaders claim is systemic rot in government-run juvenile centres.
“We came here today in tens of thousands to talk about child protection centres and the children who live there,” said Péter Magyar, leader of the centrist opposition party Tisza, in a final speech to the protesting masses late Saturday. The crowd size could not be independently verified, but local media suggested made a similar estimate.
Magyar, citing a government report he said was leaked to him, said earlier in the week that “every fifth child in state care is officially subjected to abuse”, a claim Orbán’s office disputes. Magyar is the main challenger to Orbán in the upcoming elections.
The leaked footage, which has been independently verified by Reuters and others, includes shocking displays of violence against minors.
Some 27,000 people signed up for Saturday’s protest march, organised by Magyar under the slogan of “Let’s stand together for our children! Enough of Orbán’s inhumane lies and the silence of the president!”.
Magyar, a father of three as he reminded the masses, created the protest movement earlier this year in response to what he said was systematic abuse of children entrusted to the government.
Last year, Magyar led protests over separate accusations of sexual abuse involving children that also rocked Orbán’s government amid allegations of a cover up. is already the second time this year that the Orbán government is rocked by allegations of covering up abuse. Hungarian President Katalin Novák was forced to resign after granting a pardon to a man implicated in a child sexual abuse case.
Magyar’s ex-wife, former justice minister Judit Varga, was also ensnared in the scandal and stepped down.
Hungary will elect a new government on 12 April 2026. Magyar’s Tisza – which belongs to the European People’s Party – is neck-on-neck with or outpacing incumbent Fidesz in most polls, though the reliability of much of the data is in question due to Orbán’s influence over much of the country’s media.
(This story has been updated to include details of the march.)
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