BUDAPEST, Hungary — Hungary’s conservative president resigned Saturday amid public outcry over a pardon she granted to a person convicted as an confederate in a toddler sexual abuse case, a call that unleashed an unprecedented political scandal for the long-serving nationalist authorities.

Katalin Novák, 46, introduced in a televised message that she would step down from the presidency, an workplace she has held since 2022. Her determination got here after greater than every week of public outrage after it was revealed that she issued a presidential pardon in April 2023 to a person convicted of hiding a string of kid sexual abuses in a state-run youngsters’s residence.

“I issued a pardon that caused bewilderment and unrest for many people,” Novák mentioned on Saturday. “I made a mistake.”

Novák’s resignation got here as a uncommon episode of political turmoil for Hungary’s nationalist governing occasion Fidesz, which has dominated with a constitutional majority since 2010. Under the management of populist Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, Fidesz has been accused of dismantling democratic establishments and rigging the electoral system and media in its favor.

Novák, a key Orbán ally and a former vice chairman of Fidesz, served because the minister for households till her appointment to the presidency. She has been outspoken in advocating for conventional household values and the safety of kids.

She was the primary feminine president in Hungary’s historical past, and the youngest individual to ever maintain the workplace.

But her time period got here to an finish after she pardoned a person sentenced in 2018 to greater than three years in jail. He was discovered responsible of pressuring victims to retract their claims of sexual abuse by the establishment’s director, who was sentenced to eight years for abusing no less than 10 youngsters between 2004 and 2016.

“I decided in favor of clemency in April of last year in the belief that the convict did not abuse the vulnerability of the children entrusted to him. I made a mistake,” Novák said Saturday. “I apologize to those I have hurt and to any victims who may have felt I am not standing up for them.

“As head of state, I am addressing you for the last time today. I resign from the office of president of the republic,” she mentioned.

Also implicated was Judit Varga, another key Fidesz figure who was minister of justice at the time and endorsed the pardon. Varga was expected to lead the list of European Parliament candidates from Fidesz when elections are held this summer.

But in a Facebook put up on Saturday, Varga introduced that she would take political accountability and “retire from public life, resigning my seat as a member of parliament and also as leader of the EP list.”

At the presidential headquarters in Budapest on Saturday evening, around 200 people gathered in what was originally planned as a protest to call on Novák to resign.

After her announcement, attendees said they were happy, but that it wasn’t enough to fundamentally change Orbán’s system of governance.

“I’m glad that she resigned but I think things aren’t solved this way. She’s not the main criminal, you’ve got to look all the way to the top,” said Anna Bujna.

Erzsébet Szapunczay, another attendee, said she was “very, very happy” with Novák’s resignation, however that “she should have resigned from the first moment, like many people in this government, because she’s not alone.

“Her resignation was correct, because this way she saves herself from even more people hating her and being outraged that she represented this country until now,” she mentioned.

Orbán’s Fidesz enjoys the best stage of help amongst Hungary’s political events, and a fragmented opposition has contributed to his profitable 4 straight election victories.

His authorities, thought of probably the most pleasant to the Kremlin within the European Union, has been criticized inside the bloc for holding up key choices corresponding to help for Ukraine and admitting Sweden into the NATO navy alliance.

On Saturday, the top of Fidesz’s parliamentary delegation, Máté Kocsis, mentioned in an announcement that Novák and Varga had made a “responsible decision,” and that the occasion was grateful for his or her work.