Viktor Orbán targets his former pastor in Hungary

In Pastor Gábor Iványi’s office, a Bible sits on the coffee table along with a large photograph of a homeless man sleeping on a bench in front of Parliament—an illustration of a government that mistreats the poor. There is also a photograph of Queen Elizabeth II, who had visited the charismatic pastor, who is also the head of a significant charity organization. The visit took place during a 1993 trip to Hungary, which at the time appeared promising and on the path to firmly anchoring itself to Western European liberal democracies.

The Methodist pastor founded the Church of Fellowship and the Oltalom Foundation in the heart of Józsefváros, a poor district of the capital that stands as a defiant symbol against central power. Employing about a thousand people, these two institutions run homeless shelters and a network of schools that serve thousands of disadvantaged students in Budapest and Hungary’s poorest regions.

“A system close to Fascism”

“We’re doing what the state should be doing; they should even be paying us for this work.” Instead, Iványi explained, his Church of Fellowship lost its official status under a 2011 law, stripping it of public subsidies generously given to institutions aligned with the government, particularly the Catholic Church. Iványi believed this was an act of “personal revenge” by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, whose two children he baptized. Born in 1951 in Szolnok (central Hungary), Iványi recalled: “During his first term as prime minister, I refused to pose with him for a photograph. I think he was mortally offended and has sought revenge ever since.”

The pastor is also highly political. A former member of the liberal SzDSz party in Hungary’s first democratic parliament in 1990, and later from 1998 to 2002 under Orbán’s first government, he has been a consistent presence at opposition protests. He denounces the dismal state of hospitals and schools, the plundering of public resources, and democratic infringements. Iványi decried “a system close to fascism, where everything is in the hands of one man.”

“Cowardice is everywhere”

“I would rather not have to do all of this,” he said. “But who else will? Cowardice is everywhere; people are afraid of losing their jobs, and businesses prefer not to support us.” Deprived of subsidies and drowning in debt and fines from the tax authority, his charitable work survives solely through donations. Each year, employees can allocate 1% of their taxes to an organization of their choice; last year, 73,000 people donated the equivalent of 3.8 million euros to Iványi’s organizations.

Targeted for years, his situation is now critical. After a forceful raid by about 30 agents in February 2022, the tax authority demanded astronomical sums from him. Just days before the start of the school year, the authority decided to close several of his schools, leaving hundreds of children from extreme poverty without a place to go. But Pastor Iványi remains undeterred, drawing inspiration from Gandhi, who advocated for civil disobedience.