Hungarian President Katalin Novak has resigned following mounting public criticism over her decision to pardon a man involved in a child sexual abuse case.
“I decided to grant a pardon last April, believing that the convict did not exploit the vulnerability of the children whom he had overseen,” Novak said in her speech during a national televised address on Saturday.
“I made a mistake, as the pardon and the lack of reasoning were conducive to triggering doubts about the zero tolerance that applies to pedophilia,” she said.
Thousands of protesters took to the streets of Budapest on Friday, demanding that Novak step down.
Novak was the first woman to serve as president, a largely ceremonial role. She took office less than two years ago and been a frequent visitor to Romania.
In April 2023, Novak pardoned some two dozen people ahead of a visit by Pope Francis – among them the deputy director of a children’s home who had helped the former director hide his sex crimes.
The director was sentenced to eight years in prison for sexually abusing underaged boys between 2004 and 2016, while the deputy director received a three-year sentence.
She is a political ally of Hungary’s nationalist prime minister Viktor Orbán.
She apologized “to those whom I may have offended and to all the victims who might have felt that I did not stand up for them,” Novak said.
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