Hungarian President Katalin Nowak has resigned.
Photo: REUTERS
Hungarian President Katalin Nowak has resigned. She submitted the corresponding request after the media learned that her decision had pardoned an accomplice of a pedophile.
Recently, a pedophile who raped children raised in an orphanage was jailed in Hungary. He had an accomplice who tried to convince the victims to withdraw their complaints. He was also convicted, but the President decided to pardon him.
In her justification, the now former head of state said that she did not know the article under which the criminal she pardoned, a certain Andrew K., a representative, was convicted. director of an orphanage who blackmailed the rapist’s victims and convinced several of them to renounce their testimony.
The director of the orphanage, convicted of pedophilia, received 8 years in prison, his deputy, whom Novak pardoned, received 3 years and 4 months.
– I made a mistake. I will never forgive anyone who abuses children. – She said in his speech, broadcast live.
He also apologized to everyone, including the pedophile’s victims and his accomplice, who, he said, “maybe thought I wasn’t defending them.”
In 2023 alone, Novak, through his decrees, pardoned a record number of convicts in Hungary over the past two decades – 40 people. But it was the decree on the pardon of Andrew K. that caused a wave of indignation in Hungarian society: thousands of people demonstrated demanding Novak’s resignation.
Novak, 46, became Hungary’s first female president in May 2022. Notably, before this she served as Minister of Family Affairs and Secretary of State for Family and Youth Affairs.
In Hungary, the president is elected by the members of the National Assembly (parliament). So far, the leaders of the party factions represented in it have not presented a list of candidates who could replace Novak. The names of the candidates are expected to be announced on Monday.
