The News Freedom
Chandigarh, February 11
The Hungarian President has announced her resignation over her decision to pardon a man convicted of helping cover up a sex abuse case at a children’s home as the controversy posed a challenge for Hungary’s Prime Minister, Viktor Orbán, The Guardian reported.
The news outlet highlighted that the pardon decision was made last year but only caught the public’s attention over the past days after a report by the local news site 444.hu, which was met with outrage, leading Hungary’s opposition to call for Katalin Novák to step down.
“I made a mistake,” Novák said in a televised address aired on Saturday when she announced her resignation and issued an apology to any victims who felt she had not stood with them.
László Kövér, the speaker of Hungary’s parliament and another close Orbán ally, is expected to temporarily fill the president’s responsibilities until the parliament elects a new president.
The New York Times reported that pledges to defend children against predators have become an increasingly important part of domestic political messaging by Orban, who has won four general elections in a row and who regularly denounces his critics at home and abroad as “woke globalists” bent on undermining the traditional family.
A report in The New York Times further said that a number of Fidesz politicians, including a powerful mayor captured on video taking part in an orgy with prostitutes on a yacht, have been embroiled in sex scandals in recent years.
On the defensive over Ms. Novak’s pardon of an accomplice in a child sex abuse case, Fidesz on Thursday proposed amending Hungary’s Constitution to prevent future pardons from being granted to anyone convicted in connection with crimes against children.