Tens of thousands of protesters gathered Saturday in downtown Budapest, Hungary to protest the government of incumbent Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.

The protests were led by Péter Magyar, a lawyer and the ex-husband of Orbán’s former Justice Minister Judit Varga, who shot to prominence in Hungarian politics as a vocal Orbán critic after releasing a recording implicating a top minister in a high-profile corruption case last month. Magyar has since made similar allegations against Orbán, though the government has repeatedly denied the claims. 

AFP journalists report that over 100,000 protesters marched to Kossuth Square in front of the Hungarian Parliament Building in the country’s capital city Budapest, wearing the national colors of Hungary or carrying the flag and shouting “we are not scared” and “Orbán resign!”

Magyar, who split from Orbán’s former justice minister ahead of a child abuse scandal that broke in February that saw Magyar’s ex-wife and former President Katalin Novak resign, gained prominence immediately after their joint resignations when he leveled inflammatory allegations against several members of the Hungarian government. Magyar published a voice recording in which his ex-wife, Varga, could be heard telling her husband about a senior aide to Orbán’s cabinet chief’s attempt to interfere in a corruption case.

Utilizing the media storm that’s been swirling since Varga and Novak’s resignation,  Magyar has emerged as a vocal Orbán dissident. Pledging to dismantle Orbán’s “power factory” in the form of the ruling Fidesz party, Magyar has shared plans to form a new party, and run in the upcoming European parliamentary elections. Magyar also intends to have the party run in future local elections in the central-European country. 

“Hungarian people deserve to see clearly and be able to decide at the election on June 9 that they know the vision of the three sides regarding Hungary and the future of Hungarian people,” he wrote in a statement posted to his official Facebook page. In the post, Magyar also challenged Orbán and former Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány to a live broadcasted debate. 

Magyar’s anti-Orbán sentiments appear to have resonated with Hungarian constituents, who share his distrust of the incumbent government and are critical of Orbán’s regime. “I find him credible,” István, a protester who travelled to the nation’s capital from the West, said of Magyar. “He was a beneficiary of the system, he gave it up and turned his back on it – and that shows something.”

Following the Saturday protests, Magyar took to his Facebook page to praise those who joined him in Budapest:

We have shown to hundreds of thousands that we are not afraid. We sent a message to the government that fears its power that it was enough, so far and no more. It will be a long and hard fight, but if you support us, we will succeed together. On June 9, at the European parliamentary election we can put the first nail in the coffin of the NER.

He concluded, “Our response to the vile, lying government propaganda should be love and solidarity.”

Magyar intends to run for the European Parliament elections on June 9. At present, support for the former lawyer and diplomat is estimated to be between 15 and 21 percent.