"Viktor Orbán is the godfather of the paedophile-protecting mafia" – Hungarian opposition demands direct election of head of state

"The people should decide on the new president! Let's get rid of Orbán's paedophile network!" These were the slogans of four opposition parties – DK, MSZP, Momentum and Párbeszéd-Zöldek – which organised a joint demonstration at Budapest's Kossuth Square on Sunday afternoon.

The organisers said that the demonstration was prompted by the fact that the spring session of Parliament will begin on 26 February, at which time they will vote on accepting the resignation of Katalin Novák and also elect the new Head of State, Tamás Sulyok, the current President of the Constitutional Court.

Katalin Novák announced her resignation from the presidency on 10 February after it was revealed that last April she had granted a presidential pardon to Endre K., who covered for the paedophile director of the Bicske children's home.

According to Fidesz, there will definitely not be direct elections for the head of state in Hungary. Máté Kocsis, leader of the party's parliamentary group, said that “it is very good that several parties have raised the issue, but DK and the Socialists should definitely not be bringing up the idea of direct presidential elections, because when they were in government as MSZP, such an idea did not occur to them. It would not work to have them elect the president when the left is in power, and to have the people elect the president when we are in power. Their demand would only be legitimate if they had thought of it when they had the majority in parliament.”

Shortly after the announced start of the gathering, the square in front of the building of Parliament had filled up.

The first speaker was DK's MEP Klára Dobrev.

She spoke about "all of Orbán's Fidesz being a paedophile network". According to the politician, since 2010, the government has had a hundred opportunities to choose to be on the side of children,

"but they have chosen the side of the paedophile voluptuaries and monsters each and every time. If it's their lapdog, even if it's a paedophile villain, they'll still save him. We do not want this kind of government".

She went on to say that, even though the so-called child protection law was going to be amended, the powers-that-be believe that no law applies to them. "Orbán and his regime must go, otherwise the paedophile network will remain". The crowd then started chanting "Filthy Fidesz".

The MEP described the Fidesz system as a "monolithic block of stone", but said that this system has now been shaken and the Prime Minister was "rightfully worried". In the elections coming up in June, everyone can decide whether to vote for "Fidesz, which covers for paedophiles" or for the opposition. She did not say which opposition party people should cast their votes for, suggesting only that they should choose the one closest to their convictions.

The next speaker was Tímea Szabó, Executive Co-President of Párbeszéd. She said that "The disgraceful clemency case of Fidesz has finally made it clear that it's Viktor Orbán and his network of paedophiles who are threatening freedom in Hungary today. Today, it is Viktor Orbán who is bringing convicted criminals out of prison. Fidesz and Viktor Orbán, who excuse paedophiles, should be ashamed of themselves!".

MSZP co-chair Ágnes Kunhalmi said the pardon case “is an indication of a massive moral crisis, which is destructive and which is now eradicating the last remaining shreds of our common national morality. By now, shame has become a standard experience for the nation.”

In his annual State of the Nation Address, Viktor Orbán recently said that Katalin Novák and Judit Varga had more dignity than all the members of the opposition put together. Kunhalmi responded to this by saying that

Novák and Varga only resigned when the case was publicly exposed, otherwise they "kept quiet, skulked and covered for each other", which is not dignity, but "the deepest pit of immorality".

Although the demonstration was originally announced under the headline of demanding the direct election of the head of state, neither Tímea Szabó nor Ágnes Kunhalmi spoke about it, and Klára Dobrev only touched on the subject briefly.

By the time Dávid Bedő, deputy leader of Momentum's parliamentary group started speaking, the crowd had gotten significantly smaller. He said that although both Katalin Novák and Judit Varga had resigned two weeks ago, it was still not clear why Endre K. had been pardoned. "The state party maintains a deep silence." According to Bedő, it became clear that "child protection is just an empty political product, a vile lie".

Budapest Mayor Gergely Karácsony, the politician of Párbeszéd-Zöldek said that "The current abominable scandal is not the fault of the system, but the system itself". He added that "nihilism has been extended all the way to Bicske" (the town where the children’s home in which the pardoned Endre K. had worked is located – TN) "Today, if you want to be heard by the Hungarian Prime Minister, you have to be a farmer in downtown Brussels", but he doesn’t "listen to what the teachers, the children, the poor, the disabled, or the gay community in Hungary have to say", Karácsony said.