“We shall not forget the crimes the previous government committed against defenceless children,” Prime Minister Péter Magyar said in a speech ahead of the agenda in parliament on Monday.
Child protection system must be rebuilt: children lost trust in adults
Magyar said that publishing the documentation on the presidential pardon granted to a man jailed for covering up child abuse — fulfilling an earlier promise — was “only the first step in exposing what happened in the child protection sector and in beginning to rebuild a system that has been demolished.”
He said the ministry of social and family affairs will launch a comprehensive investigation “because we must answer technical questions”. At the same time, “we cannot indulge the previous government by omitting to put political questions,” he said, adding that the committees of inquiry were being set up to that end.
The prime minister emphasised that there were two versions of child protection in Hungary. “One was Orbán’s false, hypocritical and malicious narrative on child protection with no underage victims, where young people were portrayed as criminals and anyone could be stigmatised. On the other hand, there was the real situation of child protection.”
He said that during visits to child protection institutions, he had seen “no bad people but dedicated professionals who were trying to do their jobs under impossible circumstances, while their resources were dwindling.” He said he had also spoken with children who had lost their trust in adults.
Péter Magyar: reality clashed with propaganda
The presidential pardon granted to the accomplice of a convicted child abuser had shaken the country “because, for a moment, two worlds collided: reality clashed with propaganda,” he said.
Magyar said that making the documentation of the case public, as he had promised earlier, was “only the first step in uncovering and showing what happened in the child protection sector, and in starting to rebuild a demolished system.” “Hungarians have a right to know who created the environment in which the warnings from children and professionals fell on deaf ears,” he said.
The ministry has already launched a professional inquiry uncovering “catastrophic” circumstances, Magyar said: 23,000 children and young people live under the child protection system, and 1,600 children are waiting to be placed in appropriate specialised care, he said.
The previous government spent “barely a few billion forints last year” to raise the amount allocated for a child’s daily meals to 2,700 forints (EUR 7.5). “In the same year, the Orban government spent hundreds of billions on fear-mongering disinformation campaigns,” he said.
“Meanwhile, 325 children are stuck in Hungarian hospitals for months or even years, even though they do not need hospital care. They are there because the child protection system has failed,” he said.
Shortage of adoptive parents
He added that this very system was also grappling with a crippling shortage of professionals in children’s homes, adding staff were overburdened. Some 2,000 foster parents who can ensure that every child under the age of 12 is raised in a family were missing from the system, he added.
The situation, he said, was particularly dire for children who need special assistance: children with disabilities, those struggling with severe trauma-behavioural issues may have to wait up to a year and a half to be placed in appropriate care homes.
Magyar also noted that for a long time prospective adoptive parents in Hungary had outnumbered children available for adoption, while today the situation has been reversed.
The government is planning to set up a one billion forint fund to compensate the victims of child abuse in the child protection system, Magyar said.
Magyar said that child protection must be reformed and crimes and omissions must once again carry consequences.
He added that with the help of a fund to be established this week, the authorities will strive to provide psychological, medical and financial assistance to victims who have suffered physical, psychological, and sexual abuse in child protection over the past twenty years, “as the lives of many have gone off the rails”.
The government will also appoint a ministerial commissioner to fully uncover and investigate cases of abuse in child protection and correctional institutions, he said.
Dismissals in the sector
The minister of social and family affairs on Monday dismissed several child protection officials “who assisted in the inhumanity of recent years and served Orbán’s power base rather than the children,” Magyar said.
The minister dismissed the heads of the Schlachta Margit Social Policy Institute, the Kopp Maria Institute, the leader of the directorate for equal opportunities, the leadership of the directorate of the social and child protection directorate, and the head of the national child protection services, he said.
“The Orbán government’s legacy is dramatic: it has left behind a neglected, overburdened, humiliated and traumatised child protection system in which children live in fear, professionals are exhausted, institutions are overcrowded, and decision-makers have spent years covering up reality rather than providing assistance,” he said.
He also noted that investigating abuse in the child protection system had often not been effective or swift.
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Open-ended budget for child protection
Magyar pledged an open-ended budget for child protection, adding that “if more experts and more places are needed we will find the resources.”
Magyar underscored the need for pay restructuring, career stability, professional support and mental health assistance for child protection workers. “You cannot protect children if those tasked with protecting them are on the brink of burnout,” he said.
Magyar said his government was ready to begin “a genuine overhaul” of Hungary’s child protection regime. “We will open up more places, expand the foster parent network, strengthen care for special-needs children and end the unsustainable situation where children spend months or even years in hospitals simply because the state cannot provide them with a suitable place,” he added.
He also promised to strengthen family support and child welfare services, establish independent professional oversight, and to end the practice of “isolating child protection institutions from the outside world”.
Opposition should behave constructive in this issue
The prime minister pledged that signals from children would be taken seriously, abuse cases investigated and the findings made public.
Magyar asked opposition Fidesz and Christian Democrats for “constructive cooperation”, adding that “as they did nothing earlier for vulnerable children or even decorated paedophile monsters, they should now make an effort and focus on their problems.”
Rebuilding child protection, he said, would take “years”, adding: “All the problems cannot be fixed within a year.” He vowed that the government would “never turn away again … allowing children’s cry for help be stifled in the labyrinth of files, reports, official letters and ministry statements.”
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