Political earthquake in Hungary: President Katalin Novak, close to Viktor Orban, resigned on Saturday after the indignation caused by her decision to pardon a convict involved in a child crime case.
Almost at the same time, Judit Varga, another ally of the Prime Minister, announced her “withdrawal from public life” for having given her approval as Minister of Justice – a post she left last summer for lead the European campaign.
A scenario that was still unthinkable a few days ago.
The controversy was provoked by the pardon granted in April 2023, on the occasion of Pope Francis’ visit to Budapest, to a former deputy director of a children’s home, sentenced in 2022 to more than three years in prison for having covered up the actions of his superior.
Since the revelation last week by the investigative site 444 of this decision, anger has been growing in the country.
Protesters gathered Friday evening at the opposition’s call in front of the presidential palace, and three of the presidential advisers left their posts.
Orban “saves his skin”
Faced with the scandal, Katalin Novak, who was in Qatar to attend a match between Hungary and Kazakhstan at the World Water Polo Championships, rushed her return to Budapest.
As soon as her plane landed, she announced that she was relinquishing her post, acknowledging during a solemn speech that she had made “a mistake”.
“The pardon granted and the lack of explanations may have raised doubts regarding zero tolerance in matters of pedophilia. But there can be no doubt on this subject,” underlined the 46-year-old manager, before presenting her “apologies” to those she may have hurt.
This former minister of family policy became in March 2022 the first woman to occupy this essentially ceremonial function.
“It was quick: first Novak, then Varga. But we know that no important decision can be taken in Hungary without the approval of Viktor Orban,” MEP Anna Donath, of the small liberal Momentum party, commented on Facebook. “He must take responsibility and explain what happened […]it’s his system.”
The nationalist leader, aware of the potential devastating impact of a scandal touching at the heart of his stated policy of “protecting children”, announced on Thursday that he wanted to revise the Constitution in order to exclude the possibility of pardoning child molesters.
Without procrastinating, he “cleverly deflected the scandal” and decided to “sacrifice two of his faithful – simple party soldiers – to save his skin”, summarizes political analyst Richard Szentpeteri Nagy, quoted by the newspaper Nepszava.
Viktor Orban has made the fight against child crime one of his hobbyhorses. In 2021, it also adopted a law prohibiting any mention of homosexuality among minors in public, in a merger with pornography and pedophilia denounced by Brussels.
Zero woman
Katalin Novak, temporarily replaced by Parliament Speaker Laszlo Kover, was presented last year by Forbes magazine as the most influential woman in public life in Hungary.
Originally from the city of Szeged (south), graduated in economics and law, studied at Sciences-Po Paris before training at ENA (the former National School of Administration in France), Mme Novak speaks French fluently and was made a Knight of the Legion of Honor in 2019.
Appointed Secretary of State for Families and Youth in 2014, this mother of three obtained her ministerial stripes in 2020.
Mme Novak has been on a mission to halt the country’s demographic decline through pronatalist policies, declaring that Hungary wants “neither immigration nor population replacement.”
With his departure, the Hungarian political landscape is now very masculine, knowing that since mid-2023 there have been no women in Viktor Orban’s cabinet, made up of 16 men.