Sexual abuse of children, a poisoned environment, an alleged sex video with the leader of the opposition – the election battle in Hungary is full of scandalous revelations that speak of the double standards of the rulers, writes “Deutsch Vele” in a comment.
For decades, pre-election struggles in Hungary have been extremely polarized. Regardless of whether he is in opposition or in power, before elections, Viktor Orbán invariably leads a long campaign, with which he invariably wants to imply that the fate of the Hungarian nation depends on him. And that he is the only one who can save the country from the evil and destruction caused by its enemies.
Orbán is running a vicious campaign
This time, before the parliamentary elections on April 12, the negative campaign is even more fierce. Orbán, his government and his Fidesz party had no qualms about flooding all of Hungary with anti-Ukrainian posters, sending out a “national petition” against the EU and Ukraine at state expense, and flooding social media with AI-generated fake videos about the opposition with one goal: to spread lies and nonsense. The prime minister and his cronies claim that if Orban loses, the country is threatened with all kinds of troubles – war, mobilization on the Ukrainian front, slavery and mass impoverishment due to Brussels’ tax regulations.
On this occasion, the political scientist Gábor Török spoke of the “decline and decay” of the political culture – because there is a real possibility that Orbán will lose the power he has had since 2010. The fatigue of the corrupt and arrogant regime of the autocrat has spread widely, and the opposition party “Tisa” with its leader Peter Magyar has had a clear and sustainable lead for months. The prime minister and his government are struggling with the consequences of a number of public scandals, for which the rulers themselves are to blame.
Violence against minors
In one of the affairs, from which new and new episodes are constantly coming out, it is about violence and sexual assaults on minors in a children’s home in Budapest, which was actually a brutal youth prison and has since been closed. Leaked videos from there show shocking scenes of violence perpetrated by staff at the home. Government officials apparently knew about the circumstances for a long time, but did nothing. In addition, the protection of children – combined with homophobia – is among the main propaganda motives of the Orbán government. The narrative of those in power is that they are protecting Hungarian children from Brussels’ LGBTI propaganda and the sexual assaults that resulted from it.
And that’s not all: Orbán himself, as well as some members of the cabinet, even indirectly blamed the victims of the home themselves, making them guilty. In this way, it was implied that civil and human rights could be revoked at will, which caused even greater discontent among a section of the Hungarian public.
To shut you up
In recent days, another revelation has been made, this time regarding problems at a factory producing batteries for Samsung near Budapest. According to Telex portal investigations, for years workers there were exposed to the toxic dust of heavy metals, even though they were known to be harmful and poisonous. In addition, the dust has seeped into the air, soil and groundwater. The documents show that at times the permissible limits were exceeded more than 500 times.
The Hungarian government obviously knew about all this. Even domestic intelligence must have alerted the government to the disastrous circumstances. But under pressure from Foreign Minister Peter Szijjártó, the battery factory was not closed. When the anti-corruption portal Atlaszo first broke the news in early 2024, the government began to think about how best to silence the portal.
The affair is explosive because Orbán’s government has been actively promoting battery production for years and defines it as a pillar of the country’s future-oriented economic and technological policy. Because of this, mainly Chinese and South Korean investors were attracted to Hungary. Despite numerous local protests, lawsuits and expert opinions, the government was able to push through its plans. Now it becomes clear that the so-called “defenders of the Hungarian nation” they were completely indifferent to the health of the workers and the environment.
The affair surrounding the possible sex video
Finally, there was talk of a possible sex video of opposition leader Peter Magyar. A CCTV photo of a messy bedroom surfaced a few days ago on a mysterious website purporting to belong to Tissa vice-chairman Mark Radnay. After several days of speculation, Magyar himself wrote on Facebook that on the night of August 3, 2024, he had consensual sex there with his girlfriend at the time. There were also drugs on the table in the apartment, but he did not take them.
Magyar initially accused the girlfriend in question of filming him in this situation at the behest of the Orbán government and Fidesz. It was all a “Russian-style campaign” to divert attention from the government’s abuses at the battery factory. In front of the Hungarian media, the ex-girlfriend denied having anything in common and suggested to Magyar when the video material was published that they file a complaint together.
Managers are forced to react to scandals every day
With his statement, the Tisza leader accused the Hungarian rulers of being a clique that is afraid of losing power, which is why they resort to ugly methods to distract attention from their own scandals.
Political scientist Daniel Mikesh says in an interview for DV that Orbán’s government is under increasing pressure because of such scandals. “Some scandals are not over yet, but new ones are already appearing”, says the expert and adds: “At Fidesz, they are already forced to react to such signals every day”.
date:2026-02-14 20:58:00