Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán lost two important party members this weekend. On Saturday afternoon, President Katalin Novák and parliamentarian Judit Varga announced that they were resigning with immediate effect. Novák, a former minister for family affairs, was a figurehead of Orbán's Fidesz party and its Christian-conservative policies. Varga, a former Minister of Justice, was Fidesz's intended party leader in the European elections in June.
The departure of the two party prominents is extra painful because Fidesz is affected by a core value: protection of families and children. Fidesz politicians like to accuse left-wing opponents of 'pedophilia', and that is now turning against the party. For the time being, Orbán seems to be able to keep aloof, but the political damage to Fidesz is reflected on him. The fact that the two people involved are women, in a male-dominated party, is also painful.
The reason is a scandal that took only eight days to explode. On February 2 it became known that Novák in April 2023 pardoned Endre K., former deputy director of an orphanage in Bicske, west of Budapest. The director of that orphanage had previously been sentenced to eight years in prison for sexually abusing at least ten underage boys in the period 2004-2016. Endre K. helped the director by pressuring victims to retract their statements. For this, he was sentenced to three years and four months in prison in 2019, with confirmation on appeal in 2021.
The pardon for Endre K. led to angry reactions from victims and other citizens last week, and calls for Novák's resignation from opposition parties. The government kept quiet, as did pro-government media. Novák spoke out strongly against pedophilia. Orbán announced that the presidential pardon no longer applies when it comes to child abuse. On Friday evening, thousands of people demonstrated at the presidential palace.
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On Saturday, the president returned early from a trip to Qatar – the Hungarian water polo team played there – and announced her resignation. Novák in the video: “I have made a mistake. The pardon and the lack of arguments for it gave reason to doubt us zero tolerancepolicy regarding pedophilia.” Shortly afterwards the announcement of Judit Varga followed, who is completely withdrawing from public life.
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Novák pardoned Endre K. and 21 others because of Pope Francis' visit to Hungary and because she wanted to act in the spirit of “forgiveness.” Earlier there was a fuss about the pardon she granted György Budaházy, a far-right activist who was imprisoned for violence against political opponents. Varga is involved because she was politically responsible as justice minister. It is still unclear whether Varga proposed the pardon for Endre K. to Novák, but it is certain that she signed the decision.
Katalin Novák (47) was Hungary's youngest president when she was elected by parliament in March 2022, and the first woman. Prior to her presidency – which is mainly ceremonial in nature – she was, as an advisor and minister, one of the driving forces behind Hungarian family policy, in which the government actively encourages and finances having children. Novák studied law and economics, but mainly promotes her motherhood. On her official resume it reads: “Mother, wife and working woman. She believes that family and work can form a harmonious unity in a woman's life.” From 2017 to 2021 she was vice-president of Fidesz.
The departure of Judit Varga (43) is also a blow to Orbán. The summa cum laude graduated lawyer knew his way around Brussels and has supported Orbán in his fight against the European Commission in recent years. In the summer of 2023, she resigned as Minister of Justice to focus on the European elections as Fidesz's party leader. That continuation of her career has now abruptly disappeared from view, and Orbán has to look for a new party leader.
At the beginning of 2021, the Fidesz parliamentarians in the European Parliament left the European People's Party group, just before they were to be expelled due to Fidesz's anti-democratic policies in Hungary. Since then, the twelve Fidesz parliamentarians have been unattached, although the far-right Identity and Democracy faction would like to accommodate them for the upcoming elections. In fact, it concerns eleven parliamentarians, because József Szájer, co-founder of Fidesz, has left Brussels after he was caught by the police there at the end of 2020 for violating corona rules. Szájer attended a sex party with approximately twenty men and left the location through a drainpipe.
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