Hungarian Roma protest inflammatory comments by Orbán government minister

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Over 1,000 protesters, many from Hungary's Roma community, held a demonstration in the capital Budapest on Saturday to call for the resignation of a prominent government minister over inflammatory comments that many of those present said they saw as racist.

The demonstrators gathered at the offices of János Lázár, a key minister within the right-wing populist government of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. They demanded an apology from Lázár for his comments and that he step down.

“Unfortunately, we have always been made to feel that we are considered second-class citizens,” said one demonstrator, István Soltész, a member of the Roma community who traveled from southern Hungary to attend the protest.

“Many of us also played our part in the world wars, in revolutions, in the construction of the country. But we were always just humiliated,” he continued.

Hungary's Roma population, which some estimates put as high as around 1 million or more than 10% of the country's total, represent the largest but most marginalized minority. The Roma have traditionally faced poverty, systemic discrimination, segregation and occasional racial violence.

Speaking to supporters during a community forum earlier this month, Lázár inflamed tensions when he described the Roma — also known as Gypsies, a term some consider offensive — as being a labor “reserve” which could help alleviate Hungary's chronic labor shortage by performing work considered undesirable by the Hungarian ethnic majority.

“If there are no migrants, and someone has to clean the toilet on intercity trains, then we must tap into our internal reserves,” Lázár said, referencing Hungary's strict opposition to immigration. “Hungarian voters do not show up with great zeal to clean someone else’s (expletive) toilets, so the internal reserve is Gypsies in Hungary. This is the reality.”

Lázár's comments sparked a heavy backlash and raised concerns within the government that they could disillusion Roma voters, usually a reliable voting bloc for Orbán's Fidesz party, only 10 weeks ahead of elections scheduled for April 12.

Some prominent Roma leaders and celebrities voiced their anger over the comments on social media, and a group of Roma activists and protesters disrupted another forum held by Lázár this week, demanding his resignation. Lázár has given a public apology, though he said his statements had been misinterpreted.

Many critics were angered that Lázár had made a distinction between Roma and Hungarians, suggesting that the minority was not a full-fledged member of the nation. Others took issue with the inference that the Roma ought to perform undesirable, low-paying work.

The governing Fidesz party has sought to quell the tensions raised by Lázár's comments, and blamed its opposition rival, the center-right Tisza party, of stoking division between Roma and non-Roma Hungarians.

The head of Tisza and its candidate for prime minister, Péter Magyar, has condemned Lázár's comments. Tisza holds a solid lead over Fidesz in most independent polls, and the election is expected to be the most serious challenge to Orbán's power since he took office in 2010.

At the protest on Saturday, where many held Romani flags and toilet brushes in reference to Lázár's statements, István Szilvási, a Roma musician, said the comments had “deeply offended the patriotism” of Hungary's Roma.

“It has deeply offended us in our humanity, it has offended our children, our mothers, our fathers, our ancestors, our culture and our future,” he said. “Lázár won’t resign, the government won’t resign, but it’s okay. On April 12, however, we will know for whom we should cast our vote.”

Demonstrators hold signs, one reading, at left, reading "Cleaning toilets is work but lying is politics?" at a protest against a Hungarian government minister called over comments he made about the Roma minority, in Budapest, Hungary, Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Bela Szandelszky)

A woman holds a sign at a protest called against a Hungarian government minister for comments he made about the Roma minority, in Budapest, Hungary, Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Justin Spike)

A man holds flags and toilet brushes at a protest called against a Hungarian government minister for comments he made about the Roma minority, in Budapest, Hungary, Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Justin Spike)

A woman holds a sign that reads "Hey Sztojka, what's the deal?" at a protest called against a Hungarian government minister for comments he made about the Roma minority, in Budapest, Hungary, Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Bela Szandelszky)

A federal judge says she won’t halt the immigration enforcement surge in Minnesota and the Twin Cities as a lawsuit over it proceeds.

Judge Katherine M. Menendez on Saturday denied a preliminary injunction sought in a lawsuit filed this month by state Attorney General Keith Ellison and the mayors of Minneapolis and St. Paul.

It argued that the Department of Homeland Security is violating constitutional protections. The lawsuit sought a quick order to halt the enforcement action or limit its scope. Lawyers with the U.S. Department of Justice have called the lawsuit “legally frivolous.”

The ruling on the injunction focused on the argument by Minnesota officials that the federal government is violating the Constitution’s 10th Amendment, which limits the federal government’s powers to infringe on the sovereignty of states. In her ruling, the judge relied heavily on whether that argument was likely to ultimately succeed in court.

The federal government argued that the surge, dubbed Operation Metro Surge, is necessary in its effort to take criminal immigrants off the streets and because federal efforts have been hindered by state and local “sanctuary laws and policies.”

State and local officials argued that the surge amounts to retaliation after the federal government's initial attempts to withhold federal funding to try to force immigration cooperation failed. They also maintain that the surge has amounted to an unconstitutional drain on state and local resources, noting that schools and businesses have been shuttered in the wake of what local officials say are aggressive, poorly trained and armed federal officers.

“Because there is evidence supporting both sides’ arguments as to motivation and the relative merits of each side’s competing positions are unclear, the Court is reluctant to find that the likelihood-of-success factor weighs sufficiently in favor of granting a preliminary injunction," the judge said in the ruling.

The judge also said she was influenced by the government’s recent victory at the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The court had set aside her decision putting limits on the use of force by immigration officers against peaceful Minnesota protesters.

“If that injunction went too far, then the one at issue here — halting the entire operation — certainly would,” Menendez said.

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi took to social media Saturday to laud the ruling, calling it “another HUGE” legal win for the Justice Department on X.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said in a statement that he was disappointed by the ruling.

“This decision doesn’t change what people here have lived through — fear, disruption, and harm caused by a federal operation that never belonged in Minneapolis in the first place,” Frey said. "This operation has not brought public safety. It’s brought the opposite and has detracted from the order we need for a working city. It’s an invasion, and it needs to stop.”

Neither the Minnesota Attorney General's office nor attorneys for the city of St. Paul immediately answered questions left Saturday in phone and email messages seeking comment.

The state, and particularly the city of Minneapolis, has been on edge after federal officers fatally shot two people on the streets of Minneapolis: Renee Good on Jan. 7 and Alex Pretti on Jan. 24. Thousands of people have taken to the streets to protest the federal action in Minnesota and across the country.

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AP writer Ed White contributed to this report from Detroit.

Flowers and photos are left at a memorial site for Renee Good on Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

A photo of Renee Good is displayed in front of a home on Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)