A TL;DR on Orbán and the Juvenile Center Abuse Story

Headlines have been swarming Hungary lately, all pointing to one grim source: a video from a state-run juvenile detention center. In it, staff are seen physically abusing minors, children placed there for protection, not punishment.

Hungarian journalist and activist Péter Juhász published the footage, and once it hit the public eye, it reignited a simmering anger over systemic failures, questionable political decisions, and a sense that accountability at the top is more a suggestion than a rule.

To really grasp why this struck a nerve, you have to zoom out a little. Step back. Look at Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, his governing style, the kind of policies he pushes, and a past controversy that Hungarians still haven’t forgotten.

Read also: Director of the Szőlő Street juvenile detention centre under arrest

Orbán’s Role: Why Protesters Are Pointing Fingers

Viktor Orbán has been running Hungary for close to 15 years, and he doesn’t exactly hide the fact that he likes to keep power close. His policies lean hard nationalist, and he’s famously skeptical of the European Union.

Supporters credit him with steady economic growth and a sense of pride in the nation, something many Hungarians say they feel in their daily lives.

Critics? They see a different story: weakened democratic checks, institutions packed with loyalists, and a government where the line between party and state is almost impossible to spot.

So why blame him for a video he didn’t film, showing abuse he didn’t commit? The answer lies in perception.

Many Hungarians see this as part of a broader pattern of systemic failures and repeated issues in institutions under his watch. To them, the footage isn’t an isolated incident; it’s a symptom of a deeper structural breakdown, one that stretches back years.

The 2023–2024 Scandal: Secret Pardons and Fallout

That perception is colored heavily by the events of 2023–2024. Back then, President Katalin Novák, a close Orbán ally, quietly pardoned Endre Kónya, a deputy director convicted of covering up sexual abuse at a children’s home.

The pardon stayed hidden until investigative reporting uncovered it, and the revelation sparked national outrage. Novák resigned. The scandal left a lingering sense of mistrust, a shadow that the latest juvenile-center footage only seems to amplify.

Novák resigned. So did Justice Minister Judit Varga, who had co-signed the pardon.

The episode shattered public trust in Hungary’s child-protection systems and raised larger questions:

• Why was the pardon secret?
• Why was a conviction involving abused children quietly undone?
• Who else knew?

Even though Orbán didn’t personally issue the pardon, many Hungarians blame him anyway. They see it as part of the political culture and the way institutions operate under his watch: secrecy, backroom deals, and rule-bending for insiders.

The government tried to contain the fallout, sure, but critics argue the focus was more on damage control than on fixing the deeper problems.

The signal to the public, whether intentional or not, was clear: the state could overlook rules if it served those in power, even at the expense of vulnerable children. That sense of betrayal? It never really went away.

The Resurfaced Video: Why It Hit So Hard

Fast forward to today: footage emerges showing minors being abused inside a juvenile center.

And this time, the reaction was immediate.

Not because people see it as “one more scandal,” but because they see it as proof that nothing has fundamentally changed since the earlier crisis.

Orbán’s critics argue that the government continues to treat each abuse case as an isolated incident committed by a few bad actors, rather than recognizing the broader structural problems that enable these harms.

Staff are fired, directors resign, and investigations begin, but the pattern repeats.

Meanwhile, the video itself is difficult for the public to find. Only fragments appear online, and most major outlets avoid hosting raw footage because it involves minors and ongoing legal proceedings.

This absence fuels even more distrust among citizens who already felt kept in the dark during the 2023–2024 pardon scandal.

The Larger Principle: State Priorities Are Reflected in What It Protects

Every state shows its values not just through laws but through the systems it chooses to build, preserve, or ignore.

In Hungary’s case, many critics argue that the government has focused on political loyalty and ideological narratives while underinvesting in the protection of minors within state institutions.

A state’s priorities shape its outcomes. Its neglect shapes its failures.

To illustrate the point more simply, imagine something as minor as an online Pusoy table in a casino app. When the rules are clear and oversight is tight, playing a game like Pusoy online is just harmless fun.

But let those safeguards slip, let players be left unprotected, let the operator ignore weak spots, and suddenly a small problem can spiral into fraud, exploitation, or outright collapse.

It’s rarely just one person screwing up; the system itself cracks under pressure. The same logic applies to child-protection institutions.

Weak oversight, inconsistent accountability, or dismissing bad behavior as “just a one-off,” and suddenly, abuse stops being rare. It becomes predictable.

Back to the Present

This is why the juvenile-center footage is not “just another scandal.” It has reopened questions that Hungary never fully resolved.

It has forced the public to confront whether these cases are exceptions or symptoms of a system left vulnerable by political choices made over the last decade.

To the outside observer, it may look like a single viral video.

To Hungarians who lived through the earlier scandal, it feels like confirmation that the system meant to protect children has been fragile for far too long.

The resurfaced footage is not the cause of outrage. It is the proof.