Hungarian Conservative

According to the indictment, between 2019 and 2022, the man engaged in sexual acts with four minors, two of whom were under the age of fourteen.

Concerned parents wrote an open letter to the local government, demanding that the head of the kindergarten be suspended until the conclusion of the police investigation, in fear that the opposition-led leadership might try to squash the scandal ahead of the municipal elections in June.

The Hungarian Child Protection Act faces continuous criticism from both the domestic and the European left. Meanwhile, the left has been hard at work normalizing the sexualization of children and relativizing paedophilia.

At the Fidesz–KDNP parliamentary group meeting today it was decided that Tamás Sulyok, President of the Hungarian Constitutional Court would be nominated for the position of head of state, left vacant following the resignation of Katalin Novák. Tamás Deutsch will lead the governing parties’ list for the European Parliament elections.

‘This scandal is a self-inflicted catastrophe for Fidesz. The prime minister plainly understands this, and is taking concrete steps to reform. Yet the idea that the political and cultural Left in Hungary is trying to capitalize on this crisis to sell itself to the Hungarian people as the real protectors of children is a farce—and a dangerous one.’

On Saturday, 17 February, Viktor Orbán delivered his 25th State of the Nation address, which was centred around topics such as the scandal surrounding President Katalin Novák, the reinforcement of the child protection system, Hungary’s relationship with the European Union, and the forthcoming EU and US elections.

Balog’s resignation was prompted by a recent scandal that caused public outrage where former President Katalin Novák granted clemency to an accomplice of a convicted paedophile. Novák resigned on 10 February after the events, closely followed by the resignation of former Minister of Justice Judit Varga.

Our editor-in-chief’s take on the resignations of Katalin Novák and Judit Varga, and what they entail for Hungarian conservatives.

President Katalin Novák announced her resignation after causing public outrage with her decision to grant clemency to an accomplice of a convicted paedophile. Novák acknowledged that she had made a mistake, hence, she took responsibility by resigning from her post.

István Pálffy, who returned to television as an on-screen talent after 13 years, was interviewing 2022 opposition candidate Péter Márki-Zay when he inexplicably made the claim that ‘we should demonstrate certain patience towards an illness like that of paedophiles’. He was fired after just one day.

‘Today I filed a counterclaim to the Court of Justice of the European Union over the infringement procedure on Hungary’s Child Protection Act. We continue to stand by our conviction and the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union that education is a national competence and that parents have the right to decide on the upbringing of their children,’ Justice Minister Varga announced on Facebook.

As these trends reach more and more countries, it is quite naïve to think that there won’t be more and more people trying to normalise and eventually legalise paedophilia as a sexual identity.

Although strongly committed to free speech, in some sense, Musk has been even more rigorous than his predecessors in terms of content moderation. Back in November, it was reported that Twitter had deleted around 45,000 accounts that were promoting sexual content involving children, relationships between children and adults, or non-consensual nudity in India.

The Hungarian government does not link pedophilia to issues of sexuality and gender because it wants to criminalize LGBT people in the eyes of the public, but rather because protecting children does not end with stopping sex offenders.

The new anti-paedophilia bill passed by the Hungarian legislature on Thursday is yet another proof that the Orbán government does not just pay lip service to important issues such as combating domestic violence or defending children.