She wanted to be an ear, a heart and a mouth, but became a signing hand instead

"I want to be an ear, a heart and a mouth for those who are now less seen, heard and understood", Katalin Novák said in her first speech as President of the Republic at her inauguration ceremony on 14 May. However, the experience of the 100 days that have passed since then suggests that she has not become the ear, the heart and the mouth of the downcast, but the hand of Viktor Orbán for signatures instead.

In her first major interview with the state television channel M1, she said that she did not think it was a good idea to "measure things by inches", and like her predecessor János Áder, she would follow the principle that if a hundred good laws were presented to her, she would sign a hundred, and if a hundred bad ones were presented, she would send back the same number. So it seems that in the last 100 days, Parliament has sent Novák only good laws, without exception, because the head of state has just signed everything.

She signed, for example, the 11th amendment of the constitution, which included the restoration of archaic names for counties and government commissioners, and the innovation – particularly unpleasant for the opposition parties – that the European Parliamentary and the Hungarian municipal elections will now be held simultaneously.

Despite the demands and protests, she signed the amendment to the tax law, which will force hundreds of thousands of self-employed to switch to other, more complicated and expensive forms of taxation or to stop their activities in Hungary from September. The protests sparked by the signing of the law also led to the cordoning off of the Sándor Palace, the residence of the President. Novák wrote the following in her justification published on Facebook:

"We live in extraordinary times. The economic crisis in the wake of war is upending our daily lives. Forces beyond our control are making the future unpredictable. Hungary's security is based on the stability of its public finances and budget, among other factors. In a crisis, we need steady hands, a cool head and a compassionate heart.

In this situation, it is right that the Head of State should not put obstacles in the way of Parliament's decision."

Indeed, Novák also did not put any obstacles to the law that makes strikes by teachers impossible, she signed the law that restricts the right of Hungarian teachers to strike without any objections. Teachers' unions sent a letter asking her to reconsider her decision, but the signing was as fast as lightning. It is likely that no sooner had the letter arrived at Sándor Palace than the ink was dry on her signature on the law.

Of course, Novák didn't just sign laws during these 100 days, she also travelled. Her first trip was to Poland, where she condemned Putin's aggression in Ukraine. In this respect, the President of the Republic has been a little more specific in her pro-Western messages than the government, as was already clear from her inaugural speech.

She paid a private visit to Romania as early as May, where she had talks with Hunor Kelemen, President of RMDSZ, (the party of ethnic Hungarians in Romania) and then got involved in a minor conflict with the Romanian Foreign Ministry over her Facebook post about the representation of the entire ethnic Hungarian community. Novák wrote that for her there was no difference in representation between Hungarians living inside and outside the country's borders, to which the Romanian Foreign Ministry responded that Novák's statement did not comply with international law, as no state can claim rights over citizens of other states.

During her private trip to Transylvania, Novák also visited the peak marker on Székelykő, which had been painted in Hungarian national colours at the time, but soon afterwards Romanian far-right activists – continuing the paint war that had long been raging on the peak – repainted it in Romanian colours. And in Gyulafehérvár, Novák was presented with a Romanian tricolour cockade and a bouquet.

The President then visited Bucharest, where she met Romanian President Klaus Iohannis.

She also visited Slovenia, where she went jogging with Slovenian President Borut Pahor, whom she presented with a swimming cap signed by Hungarian champion swimmer, Kristóf Milák.

She then went to Brazil, where she met President Jair Bolsonaro. The same Bolsonaro, who among other controversial statements, has also made numerous condescending remarks about women.

• He talked, for example, about how women should not earn as much money as men, although he later tried to go back on this.
• He spoke of how he had fathered his daughter, born after four sons, "in a moment of weakness".
• And speaking of a Brazilian female MP he said it wouldn’t be worth raping her because she was ugly.

“Together with President Bolsonaro, we are ambassadors of peace”, Novák said, after a meeting with the Brazilian president, in a speech in which she compared the two countries' achievements to Brazil's being world champions in football and Hungary in family support.

She has, of course, also been in the media with other things, such as awarding a medal to the Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson, adopting a dog from a shelter, having a Roma carpenter make her a stool, sitting on that stool while talking to an elderly lady about the war, and – unusually for a Fidesz politician – giving an interview to Telex. At the time, we thought this marked the beginning of a new era, but we have been asking government officials for interviews ever since, to no avail.