On Tuesday, after weeks of attacking Orbán online and in public, Magyar released a tape of his ex-wife Varga apparently incriminating members of Orbán’s inner circle in a corruption scandal.
Magyar claims the two-minute recording, taped last year, proves that Orbán’s powerful Cabinet chief Antal Rogán tampered with documents related to a sprawling corruption dispute involving Pál Völner, a former state secretary in the justice ministry when Varga was minister. Völner resigned in 2021 after prosecutors accused him of taking bribes.
The sensational release of the tape — which Magyar presented to the prosecutor’s office in Budapest before a sea of cameras Tuesday — is the latest twist in a drama that has transfixed Hungary and provided a rare moment of dissent against Orbán’s iron grip on the country’s political system.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Magyar claims the two-minute recording, taped last year, proves that Orbán’s powerful Cabinet chief Antal Rogán tampered with documents related to a sprawling corruption dispute involving Pál Völner, a former state secretary in the justice ministry when Varga was minister.
The sensational release of the tape — which Magyar presented to the prosecutor’s office in Budapest before a sea of cameras Tuesday — is the latest twist in a drama that has transfixed Hungary and provided a rare moment of dissent against Orbán’s iron grip on the country’s political system.
“This shows that the justice system is under political influence, that key figures tampered with the investigations, and that Varga knew this,” said opposition politician Katalin Cseh, a Hungarian member of the European Parliament.
Varga, who said in February that she was retiring from public life, issued a statement on social media Tuesday saying she was “appalled” by Magyar’s release of the tape, accusing him of blackmail and domestic violence.
But since the double resignation of Varga and President Katalin Novák in February over a disputed sex-abuse pardon case, Magyar has emerged as a major voice of dissent in Hungary, and has announced plans to form a new political party.
On March 15, Hungary’s national day, Magyar held an anti-government rally in central Budapest attended by thousands of people, where he accused Fidesz of spending the equivalent of hundreds of millions of euros annually on propaganda.
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