Hungarian President Katalin Novak has resigned amid calls from opposition parties for her to resign over her decision to pardon a man convicted of complicity in the cover-up of an orphanage director who sexually abused children.

• “I made a mistake… Today is the last day I address you as president,” Novak said in a speech broadcast on state television, Reuters reported.
• “In April of last year, I made a decision on pardon, taking into account that the detainee did not abuse the vulnerability of the children entrusted to him,” she explained.
• “I was wrong because the pardon decision and the lack of reasoning probably cast doubt on the zero-tolerance policy for pedophilia,” Novak said.

Katalin Novak is resigning after pardoning a man convicted of sexually abusing children

Although Katalin Novak’s decision to pardon several dozen people in April 2023 was known on the eve of Pope Francis’ visit, the Hungarian news outlet 444.hu reported, citing court documents, that among them was the deputy director of an orphanage.

The former deputy director of the dormitory, whom he pardoned, was sentenced to more than 3 years in prison and banned for 5 years from working with youth under the age of 18 for being an assistant to the director of the dormitory in forcing some boys to drop charges.

The former director was sentenced to eight years in prison for sexually abusing underage boys from 2004 to 2016.

This sparked a wave of protests against Novak, who is a close ally of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and his former family minister.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán announced on Thursday that he would amend the Constitution to rule out the possibility of pardoning pedophiles following the controversy sparked by Novak.

Hungary’s first female president has resigned after less than two years in office

In March 2022, she became the first woman to hold this ceremonial position in Hungary.

In 2014-2020, Novak was the state secretary of the Ministry of Family and Youth Affairs, and in 2020-2021, the minister without portfolio of the same ministry. From 2017 to 2021, she was one of the vice-presidents of the Fidesz party, and from 2018 – a member of parliament.

She studied economics, law and public administration in Hungary and France, lived in the USA, France and Germany and speaks English, French, German and Spanish.

Following Novak, former Minister of Justice Yudit Varga also “fell”.

On Saturday, minutes after the president’s announcement, Viktor Orbán’s former justice minister Judith Varga, who was supposed to head the Fidesz list for MEPs and who also approved the pardon, said on Facebook that she would resign as a Fidesz MP, taking responsibility for decision. She thus announced her “retirement from public life” as she gave her go-ahead as a minister, a position she left this summer to lead the European Parliament election campaign, AFP reported.

• “I am giving up the mandate of deputy and head of the list to the European Parliament,” she said on Facebook.