2024-02-10 19:32:15
The president of Hungary, Katalin Novak, faced with a wave of indignation for having pardoned a person involved in sexual abuse of children, presented her resignation this Saturday.
“I am resigning from my position,” declared Novak, politically close to Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, acknowledging having made “a mistake.” “Today I speak to you for the last time as president,” she said in a video broadcast on public television, following returning early from a visit to Qatar.
“I apologize to those I hurt and to all victims who may have gotten the impression that I did not support them. “I am, I was and I will continue to be in favor of protecting children and families,” added the 46-year-old former Minister of Family Affairs, who in 2022 became the first female president of this Central European country.
Hungarian president resigns following pardon scandal
The controversy broke out as a result of the pardon granted in April 2023, during Pope Francis’ visit to Budapest, to a former deputy director of a home for minors, who was sentenced in 2022 to more than three years in prison for covering up the abuse. for years by the director of the center to institutionalized children and adolescents.
The presidential position in Hungary has primarily representative attributes, although it also includes signing pardons for prisoners at the proposal of the Government.
The country’s opposition had been calling for Novak’s resignation since local media revealed the scandalous decision last week. In response to the controversy, Orbán this week proposed a constitutional amendment that would ban future pardons for those convicted of crimes once morest children.
However, the proposal was not enough and there was great social pressure to remove Novak from office. This Friday, thousands of Hungarians gathered in front of the presidential headquarters, in Buda Castle, calling for her resignation, considering that she is not worthy to hold the position.
A few minutes following Novak’s resignation, another of Orban’s allies, Judit Varga, also announced her “retirement from public life” for having approved the pardon while she was Minister of Justice, a position she recently left to head the candidacy of the ruling party, Fidesz, in the elections to the European Parliament. A candidacy from which she also resigned.
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