President Katalin Novak resigns on Saturday from her position after coming under pressure. The president of Hungary has resigned on live television due to a decision to pardon a man convicted of concealing a child sexual abuse case.
Judit Varga, the ex-justice minister who granted the pardon, has also stepped down from her recent position heading the European election campaign for Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s ruling Fidesz party.
“I am withdrawing from public life, I am resigning from my mandate as a member of parliament and from the leadership of the European parliament list,” Varga said.
Speaking in an address live on television, Ms Novak said she granted the pardon in the belief the convicted man “did not exploit the vulnerability of the children under his oversight”.
Report said, she apologised to victims who “might have felt that I did not stand up for them”.
“I made a mistake, as the pardon and the lack of reasoning were conducive to triggering doubts about the zero tolerance that applies to paedophilia,” Ms Novak added.
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About Katalin Novak
Ms. Novak is a well-liked figure within Fidesz and a notable female politician in a country where men typically dominate politics.
She is a close ally of Hungary’s Mr. Orban and formerly served as his family minister.
In 2022, she made history as the first woman to assume the predominantly symbolic position of Hungarian president.
Novak previously held the position of vice president within the ruling Fidesz party, and her political decline marks an uncommon setback for Orbán, who has been a dominant force in Hungarian politics for over ten years.
Story behind Katalin Novak resigns.
The pardon decision was made last year but only caught the public’s attention over the past days after a report by the local news site 444.hu, which was met with outrage, leading Hungary’s opposition to call for Katalin Novák to step down.
Last week, it was revealed that President Novak granted clemency to a man who had been imprisoned for coercing children to recant allegations of sexual abuse against a director of a state-operated children’s home.
Calls for her resignation had been mounting in Hungary.
Ms. Novak apologized, acknowledging that she had made “a mistake” in pardoning the individual.
Among those pardoned was the deputy director of a children’s home near Budapest, who had been sentenced to three years in prison for compelling children to retract abuse allegations against the home’s director. The director himself had been sentenced to eight years in prison for sexually abusing children at the government-operated facility.