Budapest, Hungary, Feb 10, 2024 / 17:25 pm (CNA).
Katalin Novák resigned as president of Hungary on Saturday amid protests over her decision to pardon a man last year who had been convicted of hiding a string of child sexual abuses in a state-run children’s home.
“I issued a pardon that caused bewilderment and unrest for many people,” Novák said in a television address to the nation Feb. 10. “I made a mistake.”
A close ally of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, Novák, 46, who is a Calvinist Protestant, has been a champion for many in the Catholic Church worldwide because of her strong support for pro-life, pro-family policies. A mother of three, she was the first female president in Hungary’s history and the youngest person to ever hold the office.
Her unexpected resignation deals a major blow to Hungary’s nationalist governing party Fidesz, which since 2010 has ruled with a constitutional majority.
Today I resigned from my office as President of Hungary. Thank you for everything to all my friends in all four corners of the world. Hungary🇭🇺 is a wonderful country with marvelous people, a good partner, an even better friend and a reliable ally. I am glad that in the past… pic.twitter.com/j4SdiezAkK
— Katalin Novák (@KatalinNovak_HU) February 10, 2024
Public outcry over the pardon erupted only in the past week. The man she pardoned in April 2023 was sentenced in 2018 to more than three years in prison after being found guilty of pressuring victims to retract their claims of sexual abuse by the director of the children’s home, who was sentenced to eight years for abusing at least 10 children between 2004 and 2016, according to the Associated Press.
In Hungary, the right of individual pardon is exercised by the president of the republic, whose decisions are countersigned by the minister of justice. The presidential pardon is not subject to legal appeal.
“I decided in favor of clemency in April of last year in the belief that the convict did not abuse the vulnerability of the children entrusted to him. I made a mistake,” Novák said Saturday. “I apologize to those I have hurt and to any victims who may have felt I am not standing up for them.”
Immediately after the outgoing president’s announcement, the minister of justice, Judit Varga, who countersigned the pardon decision in question, also resigned from the government and announced her withdrawal from public life.
The news came as a thunderclap in Hungary, where Novák and Varga had established themselves over the past two years as emblematic figures in Orbán’s government. But in the long term, this shadow would have discredited the Fidesz party, Novák having built her popularity precisely on the image of moral probity associated with her, and the pro-family and pro-child policies implemented when she was head of the Ministry for Family Affairs between 2020 and 2021.
On Feb. 8, two days before Novák’s resignation, Orbán had announced via his Facebook page that he had submitted a constitutional amendment on behalf of his government, making it impossible to pardon the perpetrator of a crime committed against minors.
In his message titled “No mercy for paedophiles,” he stressed the need to create a situation of exception for all crimes committed against children.
Following Novák’s resignation, a group of demonstrators led by the opposition Momentum party gathered in front of the Sándor Palace, the official residence of the president of the republic in Hungary, to demand further explanations from the government.
With 40 pardons granted in the year 2023, Novak is, according to national media, “the greatest dispenser of pardons” in recent Hungarian history.
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A sad event for an outstanding witness to innocent life. At times an act of presumed compassion can offend justice, as it seems here. The tension between compassion and justice in its current application is dividing the Church. For the Church and world the balance is uniquely found in the words of Christ.
It’s too bad the journalist didn’t consider it important to ask or answer the question of why the pardon was issued. That makes all the difference in the world.
You raise the issue I too thought of. Taking her words in consideration, “I decided in favor of clemency in April of last year in the belief that the convict did not abuse the vulnerability of the children entrusted to him”, Katalin Novák may have had further information as frequently happens in such cases, such as hysteria, when abuse incites others to make exaggerated accusations. The ‘convict’ person who sought to change their testimony was not the director found guilty of sexual abuse.
Novak was a champion of the innocent, but not the sexual predator. I feel that Hungry’s autocratic PM Viktor Orban had a hand in her decision.
“On Feb. 8, two days before Novák’s resignation, Orbán had announced via his Facebook page that he had submitted a constitutional amendment on behalf of his government, making it impossible to pardon the perpetrator of a crime committed against minors”. Interestingly, any US President can pardon any criminal without cause. History doesn’t bode will for Orban.
During his FOURTH term in office Orbán’s march toward autocratic rule had been largely unopposed—at least publicly—by the leaders of the other national parties that with Fidesz made up the European People’s Party (EPP). Moreover, his increasing overtures to Russia’s Vladimir Putin did not sit well with some of Orbán’s EPP colleagues.
After winning Hungary’s 2010 election, prime minister Orban systematically dismantled the country’s democracy – undermining the basic fairness of elections, packing the courts with cronies, and taking control of more than 90 percent of the country’s media outlets. He has openly described his form of government as “illiberal democracy,”
Amazingly, our democratic form of government will face something similar in the 2024 presidential election!
I ask, how does the church view Viktor Orban and the future of Hungary and the domestic threat to our precious democracy in 2024?
God save our constitition.
“Amazingly, our democratic form of government will face something similar in the 2024 presidential election!”
No, it actually will face no such thing.
Oh? (autocratic)
I will be a dictator on day one.
I want absolute immunity, even though I did nothing wrong.
I will expand the power of the presidency.
I will clean house in the DOJ (FBI), DOD.
I will remove the US from NATO.
I expect Pence will do the right thing, or I won’t like him so much.
I am your retribution. Go home in peace, we love you, I know your pain
I will supress any nonviolent gatherings by using the military. (Marshall law).
I think Hitler did some good. I never read Mien kampf.
I see Putin, Xe and Un as brilliant men
I want to know where Nikki’s husband is? Michael Haley is a major in the South Carolina Army National Guard, which he joined in 2006. This upcoming tour in support of U.S. Africa Command marks his second active-duty overseas deployment. WOW!
And there is so much more exteme idiocy.
Hope this helps. God bless.
Oh! Don’t mention my name for fear of retrubition against my family!
Well Morgan, I wish we did have someone like Mr. Orban to choose from in our coming election but I guess we’ll just have to do the best we can with what’s available.
I don’t expect the current candidate choices will look the same by November but who knows?
Mscracker. Please read the following I clipped and reply.
Former U.S. President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during the National Rifle Association (NRA) Presidential Forum at the Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex & Expo Center, in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, U.S., February 9, 2024. REUTERS/Leah Millis.
BRUSSELS, Feb 12 (Reuters) – Former U.S. President Donald Trump raised a storm of criticism from the White House and top Western officials for suggesting he would “NOT DEFEND NATO allies who failed to spend enough on defense and would even ENCOURAGE RUSSIA to attack them”.
Add to that Trump’s tirade during his tenure demeaning our WWII heroes who died in combat “they are suckers and losers”. Imagine from a man who spent not an hour in the service of his country. Instead, he cowered behind a “heel spur” as reason for not serving!!!
Orban is traitor light.
Trump is a mentally deranged tyrant!