Tens of thousands of people protested against Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s administration in downtown Budapest on Saturday, according to Al Jazeera.
Peter Magyar, 43, a former government insider turned critic who was formerly married to Judit Varga, Orban’s former justice minister, spearheaded the demonstration on Saturday.
Aiming to bring together conservative and liberal Hungarians disenchanted with Orban’s leadership and the dispersed, ineffective political opposition, Magyar spoke to an assemblage of people crammed into the expansive square outside the parliament building in Budapest.
“Step by step, brick by brick, we are taking back our homeland and building a new country, a sovereign, modern, European Hungary,” he said.
As the demonstrators marched in the direction of parliament, some protestors yelled, “Orban resign!” and “We are not scared!” reported Al Jazeera.
Many hoisted the national flag or donned the red, white, and green national colours, which Orban’s party has claimed as its own for the last 20 years.
When Magyar became the government’s whistleblower in February and made controversial remarks regarding the inner workings of Orban’s administration, he gained widespread recognition.
He posted a recording of a January 2023 conversation with his ex-wife Varga on Facebook in March.
In the recording, she described how aides to Antal Rogan, Orban’s cabinet chief, attempted to tamper with the prosecution files in a corruption case involving Pal Volner, the former state secretary of the ministry of justice.
“They suggested to the prosecutors what should be removed,” Varga says in the recording, according to Al Jazeera.
Magyar’s divorce with Varga and his loss of jobs in multiple state firms have led Hungary’s government to characterise him as an opportunist looking to start a new career.
However, Orban’s political problems have gotten worse as a result of his surge ahead of the June European legislative elections.
It also comes after a sex abuse scandal in February that deposed the prime minister’s two main political supporters, Varga and the former president.