Listeners:
Top listeners:
-
play_arrow
Kapital FM 92.9 The Station that Rocks!
This has become the biggest threat to Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s rule since he returned to power in 2010.
Hungary has been shaken by the sudden resignations of the two most popular and successful women in an otherwise strongly male-dominated governing party.
President Katalin Novak and former Justice Minister Judit Varga have both taken responsibility for the decision to grant clemency to Endre K, former deputy director of a state orphanage.
Endre K was jailed for persuading children to withdraw their testimony against the director of the orphanage for sexual abuse.
The issue has become deeply problematic for a government which has made protection of children and traditional family values the cornerstone of its policies.
And this double resignation, coming amid increasing protests, has deprived Viktor Orban of two very different but essential allies.
President Novak radiated a “mother of the nation” image, closely identified with popular policies to encourage couples to have more children. She also promoted a more inclusive, less aggressive style than the prime minister in her largely symbolic role as head of state.
The tough-talking Judit Varga had been due to lead the governing Fidesz party into battle against the “Brussels bureaucrats” in the European elections in June. Now she has resigned as an MP and withdrawn from public life.
Two other key figures have come under attack too – Mr Orban’s communications chief Antal Rogan, who is also in charge of the secret services, and Zoltan Balog, a Protestant bishop and personal adviser to the prime minister.
Mr Balog is alleged to have lobbied behind the scenes for the presidential clemency in the Endre K case. He has denied the allegation.Within minutes of Judit Varga’s resignation, her ex-husband, powerful Fidesz insider Peter Magyar, announced: “I do not want to be part of a system for a minute longer where the real culprits hide behind women’s skirts.”
“For a long time, I believed in an ideal, in a national, sovereign, civic Hungary,” he complained. “However, over the past few years and especially today, I have come to realise all this is indeed just a political product, a sugary coating that serves only two purposes: to conceal the operation of the power factory and to acquire enormous wealth.”
He followed that up with a 100-minute interview on Sunday evening to the government-critical Partizan channel on YouTube, which has now been viewed 1.4 million times. Each day, he posts new criticism of government figures on Facebook.
On Tuesday, he singled out Antal Rogan, the government’s communications maestro, asking him why he was staying silent, hiding behind the prime minister’s spokesman.”You used to cut a much tougher figure,” he said. “Why are you hiding from your constituents? Why haven’t you held a press conference for years? Are you afraid to answer questions?”
“Dear Stephen [Istvan], you are a really talented person, at the age of 37, you have 100bn Forints (£220m), so many hotels, banks, fund managers, valuable former state-owned properties.”
“What other companies have you taken over lately? What is the total of government loans or grants you received to build your portfolio? Have you recently visited villages in Borsod [in northeast Hungary], where children sometimes play in the yard without warm clothes in winter?”
BBC
Post comments (0)