Le Pays De France - Hungary's most vulnerable fall victim to Orban feud with his ex-pastor

Local authorities had ordered the closure of the church-run school at the last minute, saying its finances were too unstable.

"The school bag was packed" and Adam was "waiting to see his friends again", his mother Mariann Baloghne Petnehazi told AFP.

"Then suddenly we got a message saying there is no school to attend."

The sudden closure in August left 160 students -- mostly children with special needs -- scrambling for alternatives.

Adam eventually found another school, but parents still lament the closure of the "irreplaceable" John Wesley establishment, said Csilla Novakne Finta, the head of the parents' association.

She said the school was exceptional because students with and without special needs were taught side by side.

- 'Caricature of Christianity' -

The pupils are the latest collateral damage in a long-running feud between the school's founder and Hungary's nationalist leader Viktor Orban.

Methodist pastor Gabor Ivanyi said the school's closure was the result of years of "persecution" by Orban's government after the pair fell out.

His Hungarian Evangelical Fellowship (MET), which runs a network of social institutions including homeless shelters and care homes, already has had to close two more schools this year and hand over management of seven others to the state.

Yet Ivanyi was once Orban's family pastor. He married him and baptised his first two children.

The respected churchman, celebrated for his decades of activism against the former communist regime, fell out of favour after criticising the government's crackdown on homeless people and refugees.

The 73-year-old Ivanyi denounced what he called the "hypocrisy" of the prime minister, who claims to be the defender of European Christianity amid an "invasion of migrants".

The government represents a "bitter caricature of Christianity, even more repugnant than paganism", Ivanyi told AFP.

Shortly after Orban's return to power in 2010, the government cut the number of recognised religious communities from over 300 to 32.

Ivanyi's MET did not make the list.

- 'Sense of security' -

Deprived of some public funding despite a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights in his favour, Ivanyi has tried to keep his church's social institutions open by lowering his employees' salaries and scrapping social security contributions.

"For me, it was a bitter choice, giving out net salaries month after month and hoping the government would come to its senses one day, so we could negotiate," Ivanyi said.

But the stopgap measure born out of desperation led to a tax raid in 2022 on his offices and the freezing of bank accounts for debt collection.

The frail pastor even faces five to 10 years in prison for allegedly assaulting public officials during the raid.

Ivanyi insists that all outstanding debt could be easily settled if his church retroactively received the subsidies it was entitled to.

The government denies owing it "a single penny" and rejects accusations of "religious persecution", claiming people are "free to practice" the religion of their choice in Hungary.

It told AFP that the church "accumulated so much public debt" that authorities "had no other option but to intervene".

The church has since relied on donations to keep the lights on, raising around 44,000 euros ($47,500) during a recent charity concert.

But Ivanyi fears he will not be able to continue for much longer.

A church should not be limited to "sermons from men in robes" but "doing good deeds", he said.

"Healing, comforting, feeding -- to the extent that resources allow."

At the church's school for children with special needs in southeastern Oroshaza, Judit Istvanne Soki is worried the facility her 16-year-old foster son attends could be shuttered next.

"After completing eighth grade, he could stay on, get support to develop further and possibly learn a profession," she said, adding that the school had "provided a great sense of security" for her family.

(H.Leroy--LPdF)