Viktor Orbán remains under pressure after tens of thousands of people protested in central Budapest on Friday against the government and demanded support for victims of sexual violence following the recent pardon scandal for a man convicted of pedophilia, EFE reports.

“Now there are monsters. Let’s protect the victims, children, for a healthy society,” is the motto of the protest organized by some of the country’s most famous internet stars, which gathered more than 40,000 people. “Bored” and “Don’t be indifferent!” – asked the organizers, who were joined by more than a hundred famous personalities, including actors, artists, singers, models, writers and journalists, notes Agerpres.

Hungary’s conservative prime minister, who has been in power since 2010, has tried to defuse the scandal that led to the ouster of two of his political allies, the president and former justice minister Judith Varga, but continued to dominate domestic media.

On the eve of Pope Francis’ official visit to Hungary in April 2023, President Katalin Novak pardoned about 20 people, including the former deputy director of an orphanage who was convicted in 2022 of concealing facts about his boss, the director of the orphanage.

The latter was sentenced to 8 years in prison for sexually abusing boys between 2004 and 2016, and his deputy, who was later pardoned by Katalin Novak, was sentenced to 3 years in prison.

After the investigative journalism website published the pardon last week, Hungarian opposition parties called for the resignation of President Novak, a former family minister and close ally of conservative Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. She noted that the motivation behind her decision on the said pardon is not public and that any pardon is controversial in nature. Novak later resigned. In addition, Judith Varga, a former justice minister in Viktor Orbán’s ultra-nationalist government, retired from political life as she signed a pardon.

“The conclusion is this: if not here and now, then when to protest? We see that this caused a split not only among liberal or opposition voters, but also among the voters of the government. Protection of children is something unique, I think that there should be no doubt”, – one of the organizers Zholt Osvat explained to the mass media shortly before the protest.

“On the pretext of a visit to the Pope, a man who was an active accomplice of a pedophile was released. He was released with a presidential pardon, he received consent and will be able to return to work with children at any time,” the appeal reads.

The most vulnerable, “victims of a tragic fate, were abandoned by the state,” they add, emphasizing that “the victims are now betrayed. We want to express our anger, pain and sympathy.”

Despite the resignations, outrage has continued to grow, with both political parties and organizations that protect minors demanding details of the case and who asked for the pardon be made public, while others point to Orbán as primarily responsible.