DHungarian President Katalin Novák drew conclusions from a much-criticized pardon decision on Saturday evening and announced her resignation. State television showed a video of Novák announcing her resignation after she cut short a state visit to Qatar because of the scandal. Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, head of the Fidesz party, which has a two-thirds majority in parliament, had previously turned away from Novák. In April 2023, she pardoned a man who had been sentenced to prison for coercion in connection with a case of sexual abuse of minors.
This is a sensitive point in Orbán's government communications because the national-conservative Fidesz party has a strong profile on the issue of child protection. The term “child protection” is even used to describe a controversial law that prohibits the public display of homosexual relationships in front of minors. Novák now said in her resignation statement: “I made a mistake. The amnesty decision and the lack of justification were likely to raise doubts.”
The 46-year-old politician was elected president by the parliament in Budapest in 2022. She was previously a member of Orbán's government as family minister and was temporarily his deputy as Fidesz chairman. Parliament President László Kövér is now taking over the official duties of the head of state for the time being. The election of a successor is once again the responsibility of parliament.
Another retreat
Another Fidesz politician, Judit Varga, who, together with Novák, has given the traditionally male-dominated party a more feminine face in recent years, is also threatened with political extinction because of the affair. As Minister of Justice, she countersigned the controversial amnesty decision. She announced on Saturday that she would withdraw from public life. Although Varga had already left the government as a minister, she wanted to lead the Fidesz election campaign for the European Parliament as the top candidate and was even considered a possible Hungarian candidate for the EU Commission.
The presidential pardon in April 2023 benefited a former deputy director of a children's home who had attempted to cover up cases of pedophilia. According to the court's findings, the long-time educator knew that the director of his institution had sexually abused several minors in a children's home in Bicske. Not only did he not report him, but he also tried to force one of the victims who had made the crime public to make a false statement: the victim should confess that she had lied.
He was sentenced to three years and four months in prison for coercion in official proceedings. As a result of the pardon, he was given nine months in prison. What is even more important and controversial is that the legal consequences such as restrictions on certain professional activities and public offices as well as entries in the criminal record have been erased.
There was no explanation from the President as to why she had issued a pardon in this case; not even after the case became known at the beginning of February. Only in her resignation did she say that she had been guided by the idea that the convicted man had not himself abused the vulnerability of the children entrusted to him. But that was a mistake that shouldn't have happened.
In her previous statements, Novák had spoken of a media campaign against her person and asserted that she had never pardoned pedophiles. According to the wording, that was actually true. Nevertheless, a storm of indignation arose among victims' associations and opposition parties; There was also criticism from Fidesz and media outlets close to it.
When Orbán distanced himself from his former minister last week, it became clear that Novák would not be able to hold on. The Prime Minister also hastily initiated a constitutional amendment, according to which pardons will be excluded in the future if the victims of the criminals in question were minors.
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