The president of Hungary, Katalin Novák, resigned this Saturday in the face of the scandal unleashed by the pardon she granted, as head of state, to a man convicted as an accomplice in a case of sexual abuse of minors. Novák, 46, originally from Fidesz, the ultra-conservative party of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, announced in a televised speech that she is leaving the presidency – an eminently representative position – which she has held since March 2022.
However, from that representative position Novák had become the nationally and internationally visible face of a party and a prime minister who present themselves as protectors of family values, an image incompatible with the pardon granted. Orbán has consequently forced his resignation.
“I made a mistake. I ask for forgiveness from those I have hurt. “Today is the last day that I address you as president,” Novák said in the message broadcast by Hungarian public television, after returning ahead of schedule from an official trip to Qatar. “I granted a pardon that caused confusion and concern to many people,” he continued, referring to the presidential pardon he granted in April 2023 to the former vice director of a public orphanage who had covered up sexual abuse by the center’s director.
The pardoned man had been sentenced to more than three years in prison in 2018 for complicity in covering up the director, who received an eight-year prison sentence for having sexually abused at least ten children between 2004 and 2016. The pardon cover-up was granted, along with two dozen other pardons, on the occasion of Pope Francis’ visit to Hungary.
Since a week ago the journalistic investigation portal 444 revealed Novák’s controversial pardon, the opposition parties demanded his departure and the indignation in Hungarian society became evident, with demonstrations in Budapest in front of the Sándor Palace, headquarters of the presidency. .
The scandal was worsening and threatened to undermine Orbán in a year in which he faces European elections, so the Fidesz leader has not hesitated to sacrifice Katalin Novák, one of his best assets. Deputy Judit Varga, who was Minister of Justice from 2019 to 2023 and who in that capacity approved the pardon, has also fallen with her. Varga, 43, announced in a Facebook post her resignation as a parliamentarian and as head of the Fidesz list in the European elections.
Katalin Novák, the first woman to serve as president of the country, was also the youngest person in that position in the history of Hungary, being elected at the age of 44. Previously, she had been a deputy (2018-2022) and Minister of Family (2020-2021). This lawyer and graduate in International Relations, a faithful ally of Prime Minister Orbán, shares with him an ultra-conservative and ultra-nationalist vision of Hungary, and made a meteoric career by jumping from the Ministry of Family to the head of State.
A Calvinist Christian, married and mother of three, she has always proclaimed herself a defender of family and Christian values, and when the pardon scandal broke out this week, she denied having acted incorrectly. “Under my presidency, there have been and will not be pardons for pedophiles,” she said Tuesday at a news conference.
When, in response to the controversy and protests, Viktor Orbán proposed a constitutional amendment prohibiting pardons for those convicted of crimes against children, many in Hungary interpreted it as an indirect warning to Katalin Novák and Judit Varga.
