Hungarian President resigns

Hungarian President Katalin Nowak announced her resignation amid a scandal involving the pardon of a man involved in a pedophilia crime.

 

“I made a mistake,” Novak said in a nationally televised speech. She noted that this is the last day that she addresses the citizens of Hungary as president.

Nowak's resignation was demanded by all opposition parties in Hungary due to the fact that she pardoned a man convicted of involvement in a pedophilia crime.

“This is the last time I address you as head of state. “I am resigning as president of the republic,” Novak said.

President's Apology

In 2023, she pardoned a man involved in a pedophilia crime. Recently it became known that, along with other prisoners, the deputy director of an orphanage was released, who tried to protect his pedophile boss, convicted of a crime, and blackmailed one of the minor pupils so that he would recant his testimony. The pardon was timed to coincide with the apostolic visit to Budapest of Pope Francis.

“I made a compassionate decision that left many people puzzled and alarmed. It is clear that they want an explanation,” Novak said, adding that “the right to pardon is perhaps the most sensitive of all, because the fate of a person must be decided on the basis of the application for clemency and the information available.”

“In April last year, I made the decision to pardon, believing that the convicted person did not abuse the vulnerability of the children entrusted to him. I made a mistake because the decision to pardon and the lack of acquittal could raise doubts about zero tolerance for pedophilia. There is no doubt here, and there cannot be any doubt. I would never show mercy to someone who, in my opinion, physically or spiritually abuses children. That’s how it was then, and that’s how it is today,” Novak said.

She apologized to all the people who may have been hurt by her decision and who she let down. Novak noted that “politics is a tough, sometimes cruel world,” but she was happy to serve her country and her people as president.

The situation around Nowak has caused serious concern in the Hungarian government. According to sources, Prime Minister Viktor Orban was extremely dissatisfied with the actions of the president and her staff. In order to somehow extinguish the scandal that had broken out, on February 8, he proposed that parliament introduce an amendment to the country’s constitution that would prohibit pardoning criminals convicted of pedophilia.