Mass protest in Budapest: 74 percent of Hungarians believe President Novák should resign

Protesters held a demonstration in Budapest on Friday, demanding the resignation of president Katalin Novák and former justice minister Judit Varga’s withdrawal from public life.

President, minister “faces of disgrace”

The demonstrators gathered in front of the interior ministry to protest against Novák’s presidential pardon granted to a former deputy head of a children’s home in Bicske, near Budapest, who was convicted of being an accomplice in paedophile crimes.

Addressing the demonstration organised by the National Common Will group, Edit Simkó, a teacher, stressed that “we don’t hurt, humiliate or blackmail children”. She said Novák and Varga had pardoned someone “who harmed those who were the most vulnerable”.

“The veil of propaganda has fallen, and the regime’s vile morality and false faith have been exposed,” she said.

“And Katalin Novák and Judit Varga were the faces of this disgrace, and they did all this as mothers.”

Gergő Kiss, a leading member of the Unified Student Front, said Interior Minister Sándor Pinter and investigators “still have work to do” in connection with the affair. He said the state “failed children in several ways” and should at least provide compensation.

The protesters later marched across Chain Bridge to the presidential Sándor Palace for a demonstration organised by opposition Momentum.

Opposition leaders in the protest

The demonstration in front of the ministry was attended by several left-wing politicians, including Socialist Party deputy leader Gábor Harangozó and co-leader Ágnes Kunhalmi, independent MEP István Ujhelyi, Párbeszéd’s Márta V Naszályi, the mayor of Budapest’s 1st district, Párbeszéd group leader Bence Tordai and co-leaders Tímea Szabó and Rebeka Szabó, LMP deputy group leader Antal Csárdi, Democratic Coalition deputy leaders László Varju and Ágnes Vadai, deputy group leader Gergely Arató and Gyula Molnár.

At the protest in front of Sándor Palace, Momentum lawmaker Anna Orosz said Novák’s pardon had been an insult to the victims in the case. “It called into question our faith in a just world and the fundamental principle that we never harm children,” she added.

Orosz said they were protesting because the deputy director was pardoned after “sitting idly by for years as children were sexually abused”. The presidential pardon, she said, meant that he could now go back to being a teacher.

The majority of the victims live in difficult circumstances, but had the courage to speak out about what had happened to them, Orosz said. “And just as they were about to crawl out of the pit, they were pushed back in,” she added. “We’re here for the victims, to show solidarity with them.”

74 percent of Hungarians believe Novák should resign

Párbeszéd lawmaker András Jámbor cited a survey that had found that 74 percent of Hungarians believe Novak should resign. He said what had happened at the children’s home was unforgiveable, and ruling Fidesz’s politicians “should have said so”.

Jámbor said he was “sorry and ashamed” over what had happened, calling for “safety, a future and justice for children”.

He said his party will submit a proposal to parliament on strengthening child protection.

Rita Antoni, head of the Association for Women, said it was not just Novák and Varga who should take responsibility in the matter, but everyone who had failed to try to prevent it.

Varga and Novák are accomplices, says a Momentum post:

Attila Pető, a victim of sexual abuse by a priest, said Novák and Varga had “forgot to apologise to the victims”, and called on them to do so.

DK to initiate criminalising complicity in paedophile crime in European law