Online influencers lead thousands demanding change in Hungary following president's resignation
ABC News
Some of Hungary’s best-known online personalities have led a crowd of at least 10,000 protesters to demand a change in the country’s political culture
BUDAPEST, Hungary -- Some of Hungary's best-known online personalities led a crowd of at least 10,000 protesters in Budapest on Friday to demand a change in the country's political culture, a response to the conservative president's recent resignation over a pardon she issued in a child sexual abuse case.
Demonstrators filled the Hungarian capital's sprawling Heroes' Square and called for genuine reforms to Hungary's child protection system and for a transformation in Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's system of governance.
“I don't know exactly what we're going to achieve at the end of the day,” said Zsolt Osváth, a popular online content creator who helped organize the demonstration. “But it's certain that we won't stay silent any longer, and that we had to step out from the comfort zone of our computer screens.”
The protest came amid an unprecedented political scandal that has shaken the government of the prime minister, a staunch nationalist who has dominated Hungary's public life since 2010.
President Katalin Novák, an Orbán ally, resigned amid controversy last week after it was revealed that she issued a presidential pardon to a man that had been imprisoned for covering up a string of child sexual abuses by the director of a state-run orphanage.
