“””
Right, settle down everyone, this is getting a bit choppy. This Varnus fellow, quite the character, isn’t he? Organist, eh? Sounds a bit fingery to me.
Allegedly abusing minors, must be tough carrying those guilt-filled pipes around. He claims he’s a victim, says these accusations are like a chewed-up bone someone’s been gnawing at for 30 years. Tough to argue with the age of consent being 14 back in the day, mind you, but that was ONE HELL of a long time ago.
And what about these other bloke’s experiences, eh? Oh, they’ve all gone quiet, suspicious, innit? Makes you wonder, doesn’t it? Sounds like someone’s trying to pull the wool over our eyes.
This journalist, Ms. Füssy, seems to be leaning in with a bit too much gusto. Smells a bit like a witch-hunt, a bit of moral panic, wouldn’t you say? Still, you can’t help but wonder about the truth, can you? The newspaper, HVG, burying their investigation? Sounds a bit fishy, doesn’t it?
Perhaps they didn’t want to rock the boat. Or maybe, just maybe, they didn’t believe it in the first place.
And this Perintfalvi, who is she, the defender of the pathetically floral?
All this finger-pointing, accusations flying around, it’s enough to make your head spin. One thing’s for sure, it’s a right bloody mess.
I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s more to this story than meets the eye, something smelly lurking beneath the surface..
But hey, what do I know? Just a bloke with an opinion and a penchant for dark humour. I’ll leave it to the courts to sort things out, they’ve got all the evidence, haven’t they? In the meantime, let’s just sit back, enjoy the show, and hope they don’t release the organist anytime soon!
An article published on Friday accused the organist Varnus Xavér of abusing minors. The main claim of the article published in the newspaper Mi Hazánkók is that 7 years ago, Hvg.hu also investigated Varnus’ affairs, but in the end they did not publish the article, even though three people involved gave statements to them.
According to Varnus, however, the article by Angéla Füssy, who previously worked for the propaganda newspaper Pesti Srácok, in Magyar Jelen is full of vile slips and false information.
On Sunday, also theologian Rita Perintfalvi in a long post stood by the artist. He wrote at the beginning of the post that “THIS IS ALSO THE REACTION OF ORGAN ARTIST VARNUS XAVÉR to the undeserved slander and disparaging actions of the extreme right!”
Márton Gergely, the editor-in-chief of HVG, wrote in response to our question that the article was not published at the time due to the rules of the profession, and the details that have now been published are deliberately omitted and are served with seriously distorting comments in several places. At the same time, Dóra Dúró, a politician from Mi Hazánk, called on the rector of the Academy of Music to carefully consider the immediate cancellation of Varnus Xavér’s New Year’s concert.
Tamás Horovitz, the president of the Debrecen Jewish Community, announced a similar move on Sunday. In his announcement wrote, they were deeply shocked and regretted to learn from the press about one of the participants of the concert, Varnus Xavér. Horovitz wrote that they distanced themselves from the organist and canceled his performance.
In addition to the information about the never-published Hvg.hu article, Magyar Jelen also received a letter written by one of Varnus’ alleged victims to the editor-in-chief of Hvg.hu at the time, complaining that their article about Varnus was not published. Magyar Jelen did not publish the HVG article itself, Angéla Füssy only writes that in the material left in the drawer 7 years ago, three men were presented who were “corrupted and used as sexual toys” by Varnus as a youth, and this had an impact on their entire later lives .
The article first recalls the story of cellist Tamás Mérei, who died of a stroke in 2020, who first claimed in 2017 that Varnus made a sexual offer to him when he was 15 years old, which he refused. Mérei spoke about this anonymously, but Varnus named him in his reply, and their dispute was more publicized at the time, among other things the then Index and Hvg.hu also covered itand it was suggested that Varnus might actually have known Mérei before.
According to the article published in Magyar Jelen, other victims took heart after Mérei’s case, and this is how the story got to the point that all three of them told Hvg.hu about Varnus’ approach. The organist also reportedly made a sexual offer to one of them when he was 15 years old, which he refused, and although nothing happened, the approach is “an unpleasant memory to this day”. The other declarant was 14 years old when he received an offer, which he refused, as he said, and has been angry with Varnus ever since.
According to the third speaker, Füssy, he was 16, but according to Perintfalvi, he was 17, when he came into contact with the then 30-year-old organist. For two years, between 1994 and 1996, she was in a cohabitation relationship with Varnus, with whom she traveled to Canada, but from here on, there are sharply different statements about what this relationship was like. The article also mentions that one of the victims wrote several upset letters to Hvg.hu after the article was not published.
After the publication of Magyar Jelen’s article, Dóra Dúró, a politician from Mi Hazánk, reacted quite violently in his open letter Varnus called on the rector of the institution to cancel his music academy concert. In response to Telex’s request, the Academy of Music announced on Monday: “During each music season, the Academy of Music hosts a number of accepted concerts in addition to its own events. Varnus Xavér’s concert belongs to the latter, i.e. he rents the hall for his own event. When concluding contracts with the organizers of hosted events, the institution takes into account only artistic and professional aspects, and in fulfilling them, it always observes and complies with its legal and contractual obligations.”
Rita Perintfalvi reacted to the case on Sunday, essentially writing that Füssy did not actually contact any of the alleged victims, and that the questions he asked Varnus were also fundamentally flawed.
According to Perintfalvi’s point of view, Füssy’s article actually reveals that in two cases it was a matter of acknowledged rejection and in one case a relationship based on mutual consent. Regarding the latter, Füssy’s article states that Varnus and the young man lived in a “never-equal, happy relationship”, which according to Perintfalvi may be true, but as he wrote, such a relationship is not abusive. The organist himself wrote about this, he lived in a “romantic relationship” for two years [a fiatallal]who had never before been either his student or his subordinate”, in a love relationship from the beginning.
In a letter sent to our editors, Varnus wrote that in Hungary anyone can get married at the age of 16 with a simple guardianship permit, and the age of sexual consent is even lower, 14. He then asked whether Füssy also condemns the 29-year-old Béla Bartók, who married the then 16-year-old Márta Ziegler, and writes that if someone has a 17-year-old love at the age of 30, it is completely legal in Hungary. Varnus states:
- he has never had a romantic or sexual relationship with anyone that would have violated “constitutional Hungarian laws”;
- never, in any relationship, was he in a position of power or superiority with any of his partners, that is, they had no teacher, educator, or superior;
- each of his partners entered into an intimate relationship with him voluntarily and of his own free will.
According to Varnus, Füssy “accuses himself in an article full of lies and slip-ups, and Róbert Ábrahám is assisting him in this”, referring to the former Pesti Srácok journalist who recently accused Márk Lakatos of ensnaring minors. Varnus also mentioned that Füssy had previously been convicted of defamation by a court as a journalist for Pesti Srácok. “He’s been trying to get hold of me for a long time, and now he’s coming back to his readers with a 30-year-old, chewed-up bone story based on fiction,” he added.
It is important to add to this that although the age of consent in Hungary is currently 14, i.e. those older than this can have sexual relations based on their own free will. Before 2002, however, same-sex relationships were governed by a different rule, with an age of consent of 18. In a 2002 decision, the Constitutional Court judged this to be discrimination and prescribed the same age of consent for everyone.
In response to our questions, Angéla Füssy wrote that she herself tried to reach the persons claiming to be hvg.hu, and wrote to the address she found in the material she received. “…but since it’s an old title, I suspect it missed the mark. I confirmed that the story of the unpublished article is true in another way,” he wrote. Füssy doesn’t know what Varnus means by “he’s been looking for a spin on him for a long time”, according to him, he didn’t look for any catch on him, he just followed the information he received.
In his answer, Füssy rejected what Varnus said, i.e. that his article is full of slips, since “it only contains information contained in unpublished hvg articles and the victim’s letter to the editor-in-chief”. According to Füssy, neither Varnus nor hvg.hu responded to his inquiries, and he finds Rita Perintfalvi’s comments “unworthy of a response.” “Regarding the age of the victims, the victim himself writes in this ominous letter that he was 16 years old, I think it’s a shame to argue with the victim himself about this, he only knows how old he was at the time of the events,” he added, and in his opinion it is also telling that he himself Varnus did not deny the articles in the article either, he just “justifies with the legal framework why the current Criminal Code is not a crime. according to what he did”. Füssy emphasized that he also did not claim that Varnus’s act was a crime, he only said that it was “morally reprehensible”.
HVG: We did not publish the article due to professional considerations
In addition to Xavér Varnus, Telex also approached the HVG and the Academy of Music about the matter – we asked the former what their reaction was to the accusation that the case did not see the light of day because of the paper, and the latter whether Varnus would give a concert there in December. The editor-in-chief of Hvg.hu, Márton Gergely, wrote in his response that HVG categorically rejects the claim that it would come to the defense of those exposed to sexual abuse.
“For us, the protection of young people and those who find themselves in a subordinate role is extremely important, which is why we devoted so much time to uncovering the facts in all the cases that arose in connection with the Metoo movement.”
“If we didn’t end up with a finished article, it wasn’t because of suicide, but because of the rules of our profession. In 2017, after full legal and journalistic ethics consideration, the chief editor decided not to publish the article that went through multi-phase editing in connection with the named case”
– wrote Gergely in a statement also published on Hvg.huadding that the details that have just been published are intentionally out of place, and in several places are served with seriously distorting comments.
After publication, the article was updated with the Sunday announcement of the president of the Jewish Community of Debrecen, as well as the response of Angéla Füssy and the Academy of Music.
What were the reactions of Dóra Dúró and Tamás Horovitz to the accusations against Varnus Xavér?
This text describes accusations of sexual misconduct against Hungarian organist Varnus Xavér.
**Here’s a breakdown:**
* **Accusations**: Three men have come forward alleging that Varnus made sexual advances towards them when they were teenagers (ages 14-16) between 1994-1996. One of them, Tamás Mérei, who died in 2020, publicly accused Varnus in 2017.
* **Unpublished HVG Article**: Magyar Jelen has obtained information about an HVG article about the accusations against Varnus that was never published. One of the alleged victims wrote to the editor-in-chief of HVG at the time complaining about the article not being published.
* **Varnus’s Response**: Varnus denies any wrongdoing, stating that all relationships were consensual and legal as the age of consent in Hungary was lower at the time (14). He also claims that one relationship, with a 17-year old, was loving and equal. He emphasizes that these claims are based on fiction and misinformation.
* **Reactions**:
* **Dóra Dúró**, a politician from Mi Hazánk, called on the rector of the Academy of Music to cancel Varnus’s upcoming concert.
* **Tamás Horovitz**, president of the Debrecen Jewish Community, expressed shock and canceled Varnus’s performance at their event.
* **Other Points**:
* Rita Perintfalvi, a friend of Varnus, disputes the account of events, saying the article is based on misinterpretation and reveals consensual relationships or acknowledged rejections.
* Angéla Füssy, the author of the Magyar Jelen article, asserts the truthfulness of the allegations and highlights that Varnus neither denied the HVG article nor the allegations made.
The situation is complex, with differing accounts and perspectives. It’s important to consider all sides and await further information before forming conclusions.
