Hungarian President Katalin Novak is facing calls to resign after she made the decision to pardon a person who was convicted of covering up a child sex abuse case.
The decision sparked outrage among the country's people and unleashed an unprecedented political scandal for the nation's long-serving nationalist government. Noval, who became the first female president of the country in its history, was issued a presidential pardon in April 2023.
Her decision sparked indignation as it involved a man who was convicted of hiding a string of child sexual abuses in a state-run children's home. The individual was sentenced to more than three years of imprisonment in 2018. He allegedly pressured victims to retract their claims of sexual abuse by the institution's director.
The latter was sentenced to eight years for abusing at least 10 children between 2014 and 2016. The Hungarian president is a close ally of nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban and a former vice president of his governing Fidesz party, as per the Associated Press.
She had also served as the country's ministry for families until her appointment to the presidency in 2022. Novak has been outspoken in advocating for traditional family values and the protection of children.
The country's opposition parties have called for Novak's ouster and initiated an ethics proceeding against her in parliament. Orban, who has been in power since 2010, submitted a proposal on Thursday for a constitutional amendment that would prohibit pardons for those who are convicted of crimes against children, which is a rebuke of the president's decision.
One of the sex abuse survivors, Mert Pop, has publicly expressed dismay over the president's pardon and demanded an explanation from Novak. During an interview on Thursday, he said that he feels a responsibility to act on behalf of other victims and get answers for why clemency was granted to someone who abetted their abuse.
Hungarian lawmaker in the European Parliament, Anna Donath, said that she believed the scandal was something that the president "cannot come back from." She added that the pardon sparked sadness and natural anger that brought people to the streets, according to Euronews.
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Pardon in a Child Sex Abuse Case
During a Tuesday news conference, Novak rejected the calls for her to issue a formal explanation of her pardon decision. She also did not respond to a question on whether or not she had considered resigning from her post.
The president said that justification for decisions around presidential pardons is not something to be made public. She added that it was natural that every pardon would raise questions, noting that these will often remain unanswered.
The lawyer for some of the sexual abuse survivors, Andras Gal, rejected the Hungarian president's comment, saying that the pardon had been "a slap in the face" of the victims. The president also traveled to Qatar on Thursday for an official visit and three of her advisers resigned in the past few days over the scandal.
The protests in the country included at least 1,000 people in the nation's capital on Friday. Demonstrators held up banners that wrote, "Resign!" as they marched to Novak's presidential office in Budapest. They argued that the only acceptable solution is her resignation, said Reuters.
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