Orban's ruling party, Fidesz, has been accused of condoning crimes against children that it pledged to prevent. (Photo: Janos Kummer/Getty Images).

(CNN) --

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has been telling his country for years that its children are being targeted by sexual deviants and pedophiles. Now, his government is embroiled in a scandal after it came to light that his president had pardoned a man convicted of covering up sexual abuse in a children's home.

President Katalin Novak, a loyal but largely impotent ally of Orban, resigned last Saturday amid public furor over her decision in April 2023 to pardon the deputy director of a children's home who had helped cover up child abuse. She said she made a mistake by “believing that the convict did not take advantage of the vulnerability of the children she had supervised.”

Novak's pardon was apparently signed by former Justice Minister Judit Varga, the ruling Fidesz party's leading candidate for the European Parliament elections. Varga also resigned. Within days, the only two women to have served in Orban's cabinet resigned. But his resignations did not stop speculation about his government.

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Orban has long presented himself as a globe-trotting defender of Christian values ​​and an enemy of liberalism. Aided by state and private media under the control of his government, he has campaigned against what he claims is a wave of gender ideology, coming primarily from the European Union, that seeks to corrupt youth. Hungarian. His message has been echoed by politicians in Washington and Moscow.

But Orban's critics say his carefully constructed image is nothing more than a disguise for a plutocratic form of government designed to enrich a small group of oligarchs.

While the scandal is unlikely to loosen Orban's grip on power, it has dealt a blow to Fidesz's image by revealing that it tolerated crimes against children that it swore to prevent. The scandal could also weaken Hungary's attempt to gain more influence in Brussels in the upcoming European elections.

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Since the scandal was revealed last weekend by the Hungarian news site 444.hu, "Orban has not made an appearance or said anything. It is very unusual for him to be silent for a whole week," said Kim Lane Scheppele. , a professor of international affairs at Princeton University, who met Orban in the 1990s, before the first of his four terms as prime minister, which have made him Europe's longest-serving leader.

Former president Katalin Novak, pictured alongside Orban in Budapest in 2021, resigned last weekend. (Photo: Atila Kisbendek/AFP/Getty Images).

Speculation about the possible involvement of more ministers in the scandal increased when Peter Magyar, Varga's ex-husband, publicly accused senior Fidesz officials of allowing women to take the blame.

"I do not want to be part of even one more minute of a system in which the real culprits hide behind women's skirts," Magyar said in a video interview with the Hungarian media Partizan, seen by more than two million people.

Magyar added that he previously believed in "an ideal, in a national, sovereign and civic Hungary", like the one Orban proclaims. "However, in recent years and especially today, I have realized that all this is nothing more than a political product, a sugary coating that only serves two things: to hide the functioning of the power factory and to acquire enormous wealth. ".

Despite offering little public comment on the scandal, Orban quickly proposed changing the Hungarian constitution to prevent future pardons from being granted to anyone convicted in connection with crimes against minors. "For pedophile criminals, there is no mercy!" Orban said.

Critics argue that Orban's proposed constitutional solution to the scandal is a symptom of his autocratic mode of governance. Requiring a two-thirds majority to amend Hungary's constitution, Fidesz often modifies the constitution that Orban introduced in 2011. “His majority puts him above the law, so to speak. Anything could change,” Scheppele told CNN.

But the proposal has done little to calm the anger directed at Orban's government. Protests have been taking place over the past week – a rarity in Hungary – and more are expected this Saturday ahead of Orban's annual State of the Union-style address. It remains to be seen how and if he will address the scandal.

Protesters carry teddy bears, a symbol of sympathy for affected children, as they march through Budapest on February 9, 2024. (Photo: Bernadett Szabo/Reuters)

A weak "ideology"

The way in which Orban came to become the self-proclaimed "defender" of Christian, and particularly Catholic, values ​​was not entirely premeditated. Orban was born a Calvinist. According to Scheppele, he is not known for regularly attending church, like much of the Hungarian population. Only 14% of Hungarians say religion is very important in their lives, according to the 2018 Pew Global Attitudes Survey.

"It is strange that someone defends Christian Europe when the population does not follow any religious rituals," Scheppele said.

In a 2014 speech to Fidesz members, which was believed to be secret, Orban famously said he intended to turn Hungary into an "illiberal democracy." After being rebuked by the press and his European allies, he soon clarified that he meant "Christian democracy."

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"He said, 'Oh, well, you know, by illiberal I just mean Christian. Christians are not liberal,'" Scheppele said. According to Scheppele, Orban's alleged ideology is the result of him "whitewashing his dictatorial comments" to make them more acceptable.

Orban's critics say his ideology is weak and malleable. Despite its rampant anti-immigration rhetoric, Hungary allows certain people to purchase permanent residency, and welcomes thousands of immigrants from China, Venezuela and other countries in exchange for cash. "Christianity goes out the window when something economic is at stake," Scheppele said.

Katalin Novak's presidential pardon was reportedly in April 2023, before Pope Francis' visit to Hungary. (Photo: Vatican Press/Getty Images).

Orban's government has often accused its opponents of being sexually deviant. On the same day as the 2022 Hungarian parliamentary elections, voters were also asked to participate in a referendum on whether they supported the promotion of children's content related to their sexual orientation.

The referendum included questions such as: "Do you support the unrestricted exposure of minors to sexually explicit media content that may influence their development?" Critics said the questions were so leading that no reasonable person would answer "yes."

By holding the elections and the referendum simultaneously, the Government implied that those who vote for the opposition are "destroying Hungary by swallowing the gender discourse" that the European Union has foisted on them, Eva Fodor, professor of gender studies, told CNN. at the Central European University of Budapest.

Similar referendums have been held since then. Fodor said Hungarians are used to seeing signs that say things like: "99% of people say no to gender ideology. Let's not dance to the tune of Brussels."

But since the scandal, the rhetoric used as a weapon by the Government has been used against it by protesters. Some have shown banners with the legend: "99% of people say no to pedophilia. They [the Government] support pedophilia (and blame us)."

"99% say no to pedophilia," reads a poster. "They [the government] support pedophilia (and blame us)," read another, during a protest in Budapest, February 14, 2024. (Photo: Attila Kisbenedek/AFP/Getty Images).

Wounded, not defeated

While the crisis is not likely to remove Orban from power, it may have derailed some of his future political plans. Varga was intended to lead Hungary's "anti-woke" crusade in Brussels ahead of European elections in June, where Orban could secure a greater say in European affairs if far-right parties do well.

But Varga's resignation means that Orban's project will require a new face. And while Novak's role was largely ceremonial, the parliamentary process of electing a new president means the effects of the scandal will not quickly fade from public view.

Still, the government is demonstrating its ability to “deflect people's anger toward Orban and find a scapegoat,” Fodor said.

Much of the public's anger, he said, has been directed at Zoltan Balog, a Calvinist bishop and former Fidesz cabinet minister who has been involved in supporting the pardon of those convicted of child abuse, for which Balog has apologized.

“The media is full of people calling for his resignation. And the fact that he has not resigned is actually very good for Orban, because a lot of public hatred is building up, and it is building up against Balog,” Fodor said.

The resilience of Europe's oldest leaders is often attributed to their ability to survive scandals. Mark Rutte, the outgoing prime minister of the Netherlands and Europe's second-longest serving leader after Orban, has been dubbed “Teflon Brand” for his ability to navigate scandals that fail to cling to him. Does Orban have these same qualities?

"Teflon is not the right metaphor for Orban," Scheppele said. "Orban manages to escape from difficult situations... It's not because things slip, it's because he has a whole mechanism working under the surface to mitigate the attack. I suspect it will happen again."

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