Hungary’s president resigned on Saturday following backlash over his pardon for a man convicted of covering up child sexual abuse.
Katalin Novak, 46, broadcast a televised message on Saturday saying she was throwing in the towel following Friday’s street protests against her pardon decision.
“My pardon has caused confusion and anxiety to many people,” Novak said Saturday.
Novak has been president since 2022 and previously served as family minister under conservative Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
Orbán: Western liberals cannot tolerate right-wing dissent
“I made the decision last April to grant clemency, believing that the convicts were not exploiting the vulnerability of the children they were supervising.The pardons and lack of rationale have led to zero tolerance. I made the mistake because it suited me to arouse suspicion’ of pedophilia,” Novak said.
At least 1,000 people resigned in the Hungarian capital Budapest on Friday over Novak’s decision to pardon a man convicted as an accomplice for helping cover up a sexual abuse case at a children’s home, Reuters reported. A protest was held demanding that
Hungarian President Katalin Novak has resigned following a pardon granted to a man convicted in a sexual abuse case. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini, Pool, File)
Novak was in Doha at the time of the protests. According to the post on her X account.
She posted a message to her over 121,000 followers on X about the meeting in Doha regarding the World Aquatics Championships. Ms. Novak did not mention Mr. X’s pardon. She was forced to cut short her trip to Qatar and return to Budapest to deal with her growing scandal.
Prior to Pope Francis’ visit, Mr. Novak had decided to pardon approximately 20 people in April 2023, including the deputy director of the children’s home who helped cover up the crimes of the former director of the facility. was also included.
The director was sentenced to eight years in prison for sexually abusing several underage boys between 2004 and 2016, and the deputy director was also sentenced to more than three years in prison.
Fox News Digital reached out to the Hungarian government for comment, but there was no immediate response.
Hungarian opposition parties also called for Novak’s resignation. At Friday’s demonstration, protesters held placards that read “Resign.” “Resigning is the very right thing to do,” said Vera Sedan, 53, who works as a carpenter.
Hungarian right-wing leader Viktor Orbán (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber, File)
“Those who made such a mistake should leave and should not represent me as President of the Republic of Hungary.”
In an effort to contain the political fallout from the scandal, Prime Minister Orbán, whose Fidesz party has begun campaigning for June’s European Parliament elections, announced late on Thursday that he would approve a constitutional amendment stripping the president of the right to pardon crimes against children. was submitted to Congress.
“The pardon decision of the President of the Republic has given rise to a debate. This debate must be concluded in a manner that provides peace of mind to all Hungarians,” the text of the bill reads.
On Saturday, Judith Varga, Orbán’s former justice minister (who is expected to lead Fidesz’s general election list and who also signed the pardon), said on Facebook that she would take responsibility for the decision and resign as a Fidesz MP. Stated. .
Mr. Orbán and Mr. Fidesz won an impressive fourth term in the 2022 elections.
“The whole world can see that our brand of Christian-democratic, conservative and patriotic politics has won,” Prime Minister Orban told supporters after his 2022 victory. He added: “We are sending a message to Europe that this is not the past, this is the future.”
In October, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán compared Hungary’s European Union membership to the more than 40-year Soviet communist occupation of Hungary. Prime Minister Orban, who supports traditional values, promotes restrictive immigration policies and opposes the acceptance of immigrants and refugees from the Middle East and North Africa.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
