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A close ally of Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán has resigned as the country’s president after becoming embroiled in a public row over a controversial pardon she issued to a convicted criminal.
Katalin Novák, a stalwart of Orbán’s rightwing Fidesz party, is a former family affairs minister and was among the more hawkish voices in Hungary’s conservative movement.
Last week it emerged that she had pardoned a man who had been convicted as an accomplice for helping cover up a sex abuse case in a children’s home.
The pardon was issued, along with dozens of others for various offences, at around the time that Pope Francis visited Budapest in April last year. It only came to light recently when local media reported on it.
As protests mounted, Orbán this week sought to limit the fallout, submitting a constitutional amendment to restrict the president’s powers to pardon criminals who “wilfully harm a minor”.
But that did not assuage the protesters’ anger. Demonstrators gathered outside the presidential palace on Friday night, while Fidesz loyalists quit Novák’s team of advisers and spoke out against her. Some openly called on her to resign.
In a televised statement on Saturday, Novák said she apologised “to everyone I offended and every victim who may have felt I did not have their back”.
Former justice minister Judit Varga, another senior member of Orbán’s political team, also announced her resignation, citing her decision to initiate the pardon process and then countersigning the presidential pardon.
Varga stepped down as a cabinet member last year to focus on the party’s campaign in the European parliament elections that take place this summer.
The departure of Novák and Varga strips Fidesz of two of its most powerful female voices.
Fidesz said their resignations were “proof that on the rightwing mistakes carry consequences that are missing on the leftwing even for crimes”.
Orbán has been in power since 2010, winning four consecutive landslide victories. He has extended control over most walks of life in Hungary on the way to forming a self-styled “illiberal democracy”.
Gábor Török, an independent political analyst, said in a Facebook post that the case showed that “even as the opposition is unable in the current system to harm the government side, those holding power are not immune to their own mistakes”.
Hungary’s largest opposition party, the Democratic Coalition, called for direct elections to appoint Novák’s replacement. Under the current process, Orbán can use his large Parliamentary majority to make the appointment.
“Viktor Orbán must stand up and explain what happened,” Anna Donáth, chair of the liberal Momentum party, wrote in a social media post. “He is premier . . . This is Orbán’s system, so his responsibility is undeniable.”
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