Hungarian President will resign after paedophilia scandal?

The opposition LMP has called on President Katalin Novák to revoke presidential clemency granted to a man convicted for coercing victims of paedophilia to withdraw testimonies.

LMP spokeswoman Anna Süveg told a press conference on Monday that Novák had pardoned a man who used his position as the deputy director of a children’s home in Bicske, in central Hungary, to blackmail residents to withdraw their testimony against the “paedophile director”.

Süveg called the decision “despicable”, noting that Novák had also pardoned György Budaházy, “who had been convicted on terrorism charges”.

LMP is requesting access to the documentation leading to the decision, and calling on Novák to address the issue publicly. “Sentencing the perpetrators is something we owe the victims,” she said, adding that Novák was abusing the right to grant pardons, “a special and exclusive right of the country’s president”.

Meanwhile, the opposition Democratic Coalition (DK) is launching an impeachment procedure against Novák over the issue. Parliamentary group spokeswoman Olga Kálmán said on Monday that “someone pardoning an accessory to paedophilia … is not worthy to serve as Hungary’s president.”

The opposition Párbeszéd party proposed that Novák provide reasons for her decisions related to the pardon and sign a related document, which should be published in the official Hungarian Gazette.

The president’s decision to release the accomplice of a paedophile criminal was “shameful”, Bence Tordai, the party’s group leader, told an online press briefing on Monday.

He said a part of Novák’s job was to represent the unity of the nation and its moral dimension, and she had abused her position and power, adding that she had lost the trust of the people and “can no longer be president of the republic of Hungary”.