{"id":15700,"date":"2024-02-18T00:46:37","date_gmt":"2024-02-18T00:46:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/2024\/02\/18\/child-abuse-scandal-rattles-orbans-image-as-defender-of-family-values\/"},"modified":"2024-02-18T00:46:37","modified_gmt":"2024-02-18T00:46:37","slug":"child-abuse-scandal-rattles-orbans-image-as-defender-of-family-values","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/2024\/02\/18\/child-abuse-scandal-rattles-orbans-image-as-defender-of-family-values\/","title":{"rendered":"Child abuse scandal rattles Orban\u2019s image as defender of \u2018family values\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Hungary\u2019s Prime Minister Viktor Orban has for years told his country its children are under attack from deviant sexualities and pedophilia. Now, his government is embroiled in a scandal after it emerged that its president had pardoned a man convicted of covering up sexual abuse at a children\u2019s home. <\/p>\n

President Katalin Novak, Orban\u2019s loyal but largely impotent ally, resigned last Saturday amid public furor over her decision in April 2023 to pardon the deputy director of a children\u2019s home who had helped to cover up the abuse of underaged boys. She said she made a \u201cmistake\u201d in \u201cbelieving that the convict did not exploit the vulnerability of children whom he had overseen.\u201d <\/p>\n

Novak\u2019s pardon was reportedly signed off by former Justice Minister Judit Varga, the ruling Fidesz party\u2019s leading candidate for the European parliament election. Varga also resigned. Within days, the only two women to have served in Orban\u2019s cabinet had stepped down. But their resignations have not stemmed the speculation swirling around his government. <\/p>\n

Orban has long posed as a globetrotting defender of Christian values and an enemy of liberalism. Aided by state and private media outlets under his government\u2019s control, he has campaigned against what he says is a wave of gender ideology, flowing mostly from the European Union, aiming to corrupt Hungary\u2019s youth. His message has been echoed by politicians from Washington to Moscow. <\/p>\n

But Orban\u2019s critics say his carefully constructed image is a thin guise for a plutocratic mode of governance designed to enrich a small group of oligarchs. <\/p>\n

While the scandal is unlikely to loosen Orban\u2019s grip on power, it has dealt a blow to Fidesz\u2019s image in revealing it tolerated crimes against children it swore to prevent. The scandal could also weaken Hungary\u2019s bid to gain more influence in Brussels in the upcoming European elections. <\/p>\n

Since the scandal was revealed last weekend by Hungarian news site 444.hu, \u201cOrban has not made an appearance or said anything. It\u2019s very unusual for him to be quiet for a whole week,\u201d said Kim Lane Scheppele, a professor of international affairs at Princeton University, who first met Orban in the 1990s, before the first of his four terms as prime minister that has made him Europe\u2019s longest-serving leader. <\/p>\n

Speculation that more ministers may be implicated in the scandal <\/strong>increased when Peter Magyar, Varga\u2019s ex-husband, publicly accused senior Fidesz figures of allowing women to take the fall. <\/p>\n

\u201cI do not want to be part of a system for a minute longer where the real culprits hide behind women\u2019s skirts,\u201d Magyar said in a video interview with Hungarian outlet Partizan viewed by more than 2 million people. <\/p>\n

Magyar said he used to believe in \u201can ideal, in a national, sovereign, civic Hungary\u201d \u2013 the sort vaunted by Orban. \u201cHowever, over the past few years and especially today, I have come to realize all this is indeed just a political product, a sugary coating that serves only two purposes: to conceal the operation of the power factory and to acquire enormous wealth.\u201d <\/p>\n

Despite offering scant public comment on the scandal, Orban swiftly proposed changing Hungary\u2019s constitution to prevent future pardons from being granted to anyone convicted in connection with crimes against children. \u201cFor pedophile offenders, there is no mercy!\u201d Orban said. <\/p>\n

But the proposal has done little to dampen the anger directed against Orban\u2019s government. Protests \u2013 a rarity in Hungary \u2013 have been staged throughout the past week, with more expected Saturday ahead of Orban\u2019s annual State of the Union-style address. It\u00a0remains to be seen how and if he will address the scandal. <\/p>\n

A \u2018thin\u2019 ideology<\/h2>\n

How Orban came to be the self-proclaimed \u201cdefender\u201d of Christian, and particularly Catholic, values, was not wholly by design. Orban was born a Calvinist. He is not known to attend church regularly, Scheppele said, like much of the Hungarian population. Just 14% of Hungarians say religion is very important in their lives, according to the 2018 Pew Global Attitudes Survey. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s weird that you get somebody defending Christian Europe when the population is not following any religious rituals,\u201d said Scheppele. <\/p>\n

In a 2014 speech to Fidesz insiders thought to be secret, Orban famously said he aimed to turn Hungary into an \u201cilliberal democracy.\u201d After he was berated by the press and his European allies, he soon clarified that he meant \u201cChristian democracy.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cHe said, \u2018Oh, well, you know, by illiberal I just mean Christian. Christians are not liberal,\u2019\u201d said Scheppele. She argues that Orban\u2019s supposed ideology is the product of his \u201claundering his dictatorship comments\u201d into something more palatable. <\/p>\n

Orban\u2019s critics say his ideology is thin and malleable. Despite his rampant anti-immigration rhetoric, Hungary allows certain individuals to buy permanent residence, welcoming thousands of immigrants from China, Venezuela and other countries in return for cash. \u201cThe Christianity goes out the window when there\u2019s something economic at stake,\u201d said Scheppele. <\/p>\n

Orban\u2019s government has often accused its opponents of being sexually deviant. On the same day as Hungary\u2019s parliamentary election in 2022, voters were also asked to take part in a referendum on whether they support promoting content to children relating to their sexual orientation. <\/p>\n

The referendum included questions like: \u201cDo you support the unrestricted exposure of minors to sexually explicit media content that may influence their development?\u201d Critics said the questions were so leading that no reasonable person would answer \u201cyes.\u201d <\/p>\n

Similar referendums have been held since. Fodor said Hungarians are used to seeing posters saying things like: \u201c99% of people say no to gender ideology. Let\u2019s not dance to the tune of Brussels.\u201d <\/p>\n

But since the scandal, the rhetoric weaponized by the government has been used against it by protesters. Some have held placards saying \u201c99% of people say no to pedophilia. They [the government] support pedophilia (and they blame it on us).\u201d <\/p>\n

Wounded, not defeated<\/h2>\n

While the crisis is not likely to remove Orban from power, it may have derailed some of his future political plans. Varga was set to lead Hungary\u2019s \u201canti-woke\u201d crusade in Brussels ahead of the European elections in June, where Orban could secure a bigger say in European affairs if far-right parties perform well. <\/p>\n

But Varga\u2019s resignation means Orban\u2019s project will require a new face. And while Novak\u2019s role was mostly ceremonial, the parliamentary process of electing a new president means the effects of the scandal will not fade swiftly from public view. <\/p>\n

Still, the government is demonstrating its skill in \u201cturning the wrath of people away from Orban and finding a scapegoat,\u201d said Fodor. <\/p>\n

Much of the public\u2019s anger, she said, has been directed at Zoltan Balog, a Calvinist bishop and former Fidesz cabinet minister who has been implicated in supporting the pardoning of those convicted of child abuse, for which Balog has apologized. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe media is full of people calling for his resignation. And the fact that he hasn\u2019t resigned is actually very good for Orban, because there\u2019s a lot of public hatred gathering \u2013 and it is gathering against Balog,\u201d said Fodor. <\/p>\n

The endurance of Europe\u2019s longest-serving leaders is often attributed to their ability to survive scandals. Mark Rutte, the outgoing prime minister of the Netherlands and Europe\u2019s second-longest serving leader after Orban, has been nicknamed \u201cTeflon Mark\u201d for his knack of slipping through scandals which fail to stick to him. Does Orban have these same qualities? <\/p>\n

\u201cTeflon is not quite the right metaphor for Orban,\u201d said Scheppele. \u201cOrban engineers escape from tough situations\u2026 It\u2019s not because stuff slides off, it\u2019s because he\u2019s got a whole thing operating under the surface to blunt the attack. I suspect that will happen again.\u201d <\/p>\n\n

This post appeared first on cnn.com<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hungary\u2019s Prime Minister Viktor Orban has for years told his country its children are under attack from deviant sexualities and pedophilia. Now, his government is embroiled in a scandal after it emerged that its president had pardoned a man convicted of covering up sexual abuse at a children\u2019s home. President Katalin Novak, Orban\u2019s loyal but <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":15701,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-15700","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15700","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15700"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15700\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}