Hungary’s opposition parties have called for the resignation of President Katalin Novak over her decision to pardon a man convicted of complicity in the cover-up of an orphanage director who sexually abused children, Reuters reports.

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

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

Novak’s office and a government spokesman did not respond to emailed questions from Reuters on Wednesday.

“During my presidency, there was and will be no pardon for pedophiles, and that was the case in this case,” Novak said on Tuesday, according to the MTI news agency. She added that the reasoning behind her decision was not public, and all pardons are inherently divisive.

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.

The opposition parties, the Democratic Coalition, Momentum, LMP, Parbeszed, Jobbik and the Socialists called on Novak to resign. It was also harshly criticized by the far-right party Mi Khazank (Our Motherland).

“I am dismayed by Katalin Novak’s decision as a person and as a mother,” Momentum president Anna Donat said in a statement Wednesday, adding that she found the decision “morally incomprehensible.”