Katalin Novak was the first female President of Hungary.
Hungary President Katalin Novak resigned after an outrage over granting a pardon to a man convicted in a child sex abuse case.
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Katalin Novak was the first female President of Hungary. She took over the office on March 10, 2022, and is a close ally of a conservative Prime Minister who is facing European parliament elections.
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Ms Novak completed her university studies in Budapest and Paris on a scholarship. She is an economist. The former President started her career in 2001 at the foreign ministry.
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The role of the President in Hungary is ceremonial and the President has the power to grant pardon to convicts. The controversy sparked after the Presidential pardon of a former deputy director of a children’s home. He had helped to cover up his boss’s sexual abuse of the children in their charge.
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In a bid to control the damage, the Prime Minister submitted a constitutional amendment to parliament late on Thursday depriving the president of the right to pardon crimes committed against children.
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In April last year, she vetoed a controversial law passed by the National Assembly, which was considered discriminatory toward LGBTQ people. Prime Minister Orban’s government has been clamping down on LGBTQ rights for over a decade.
