![\"Hungary](\"https:\/\/c.ndtvimg.com\/2024-02\/qjrjash4_katalin-novak_625x300_11_February_24.jpeg\"\/ "\\"Hungary")
<\/div>\nKatalin Novak became the first woman to hold the essentially ceremonial role of president.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Budapest: <\/b><\/p>\n
Hungarian President Katalin Novak, a close ally of Prime Minister Viktor Orban, announced her resignation Saturday following outrage over a pardon granted to a man implicated in a child sexual abuse case.<\/p>\n
Soon afterwards another Orban supporter, former justice minister Judit Varga, announced she was withdrawing from public life over the affair.<\/p>\n
The announcements followed growing pressure from opposition politicians and protests outside the presidential palace Friday evening.<\/p>\n
“I am resigning my post,” said 46-year-old Novak, acknowledging that she had made a mistake.<\/p>\n
“I apologise to those who I hurt and all the victims who may have had the impression that I did not support them,” the former minister for family policy added.<\/p>\n
“I am, I was and I will remain in favour of protecting children and families.”<\/p>\n
Novak became the first woman to hold the essentially ceremonial role of president in March 2022.<\/p>\n
The controversy was sparked by the pardon granted to a former deputy director of a children’s home. He had helped to cover up his boss’s sexual abuse of the children in their charge.<\/p>\n
The decision was made last April during a visit by Pope Francis to Budapest.<\/p>\n
Since the independent news site 444 revealed the decision last week, the country’s opposition had been calling for Novak’s resignation.<\/p>\n
On Friday evening demonstrators gathered outside the presidential palace and three presidential advisers quit their posts.<\/p>\n
Orban must ‘take responsibility’ –<\/p>\n
Novak, who had been in Qatar to attend Hungary’s match against Kazakhstan at the World Water Polo Championships on Friday, swiftly returned to Budapest.<\/p>\n
As soon as her plane had landed she emerged and announced her resignation.<\/p>\n
“The pardon granted and the lack of explanation may have given rise to doubts about zero tolerance of paedophilia,” she said.<\/p>\n
“But there can be no doubt on this subject”, she added, before offering her apologies.<\/p>\n
Minutes after her announcement, another ally of Orban, Judit Varga, also announced her “withdrawal from public life”.<\/p>\n
As justice minister, a post she quit in order to lead a European Parliament election bid, she had approved the pardon.<\/p>\n
“I renounce my mandate as an MP and the head of the list for the European Parliament,” she said on Facebook.<\/p>\n
“It was quick: first Novak, then Varga,” said Hungarian MEP Anna Donath, reacting to the news.<\/p>\n
“But we know that no important decision can be taken in Hungary without Viktor Orban’s approval,” added Donath, a member of the small liberal Momentum party, on Facebook.<\/p>\n
“He has to take responsibility and explain what happened… it’s his system”.<\/p>\n
In an attempt to calm national anger, Orban had announced on Thursday that he wanted to revise Hungary’s constitution to exclude the possibility of pardoning paedophile criminals.<\/p>\n
Novak, who has been temporarily replaced by the Speaker of Parliament Laszlo Kover, was named last year by Forbes magazine as the most influential woman in Hungarian public life.<\/p>\n
Her departure leaves Hungary’s political landscape even more male-dominated. Since mid-2023 there have been no women in Viktor Orban’s 16-man cabinet.<\/p>\n
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n