Budapest: Hungary’s government has put state-run juvenile detention centres under direct police oversight, Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s chief of staff said on Wednesday, trying to stem the political fallout from an abuse scandal at one such facility.

Opposition leader Peter Magyar, whose Tisza party is leading opinion polls ahead of an election likely in April, on Tuesday urged Orban to resign and called for early elections after an opposition activist, a former lawmaker, published a video showing physical abuse at a juvenile detention centre in Budapest.

“The government decided at its meeting yesterday that the current management (of these institutions) within the social care system is not sufficient, as it failed to prevent these crimes,” Gergely Gulyas told a briefing. Show Full Art

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