Crisis builds around Hungary's president after she issued a pardon in a child sexual abuse case
ABC News
Calls for Hungary’s conservative president to resign grew on Friday amid outrage over her pardoning of a person convicted of covering up a child sexual abuse case
BUDAPEST, Hungary -- Calls for Hungary's conservative president to resign grew on Friday amid outrage over her pardoning of a person convicted of covering up a child sexual abuse case, a decision that unleashed an unprecedented political scandal for the country's long-serving nationalist government.
Katalin Novák, the first female president in Hungary's history, sparked indignation after it was revealed that she issued a presidential pardon in April 2023 to a man convicted of hiding a string of child sexual abuses in a state-run children's home.
The man was sentenced to more than three years in prison in 2018 for pressuring victims to retract their claims of sexual abuse by the institution’s director, who was sentenced to eight years for abusing at least 10 children between 2004 and 2016.
Novák is a close ally of nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and a former vice president of his governing Fidesz party. She served as Hungary's minister for families until her appointment to the presidency in 2022, and has been outspoken in advocating for traditional family values and the protection of children.
Hungary's opposition parties have called for her ouster and initiated an ethics proceeding against her in parliament. On Thursday, Orbán, in power since 2010, submitted a proposal for a constitutional amendment that would prohibit pardons for those convicted of crimes against children — a rebuke of Novák's decision.