Orbán initiates amending the constitution over presidential pardon case

"There's no mercy for paedophile offenders. This is my personal conviction," Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said in a video posted on his Facebook page on Thursday afternoon.

The Prime Minister spoke about the dispute that had emerged in recent days over the authority for granting clemency, after it was revealed that last April, President Katalin Novák had pardoned the former deputy director of the Bicske children's home who had helped cover up the pedophile director's actions.

Orbán said that there was no room for legal wrangling here, but a clear and unequivocal decision was needed to create a straightforward situation.

"On behalf of the government, I have submitted a constitutional amendment that would make it impossible to pardon someone who committed a crime against a minor."

– The Prime Minister announced, adding that it was time to settle this issue.

He also mentioned in the video that he has five children and six grandchildren. “If someone were to touch them, my first thought would be that they should be cut in half or cut into pieces.”

Katalin Novák: All clemency decisions are divisive

The Hungarian public has been speculating for days as to why Katalin Novák pardoned the former deputy director of the Bicske children's home on the pretext of the Pope's visit. The pardoned man had used blackmail to force a resident of the home to withdraw his testimony against the paedophile director.

We have been trying to reach the President and the members of the government for days to ask them about clemency. At a press conference on Tuesday morning, Katalin Novák only briefly responded to a question from ATV, but did not give any specifics about the background of her decision.

“I am disgusted by paedophilia, I consider it one of the most disgusting and serious crimes. There has been no pardon for paedophiles under my presidency, there never will be, and that was the case in this instance as well.”

The President said that there is a legal provision according to which the reasons for presidential pardon decisions are not public. "It is therefore natural that every decision on clemency raises questions and, in some cases, these questions remain unanswered, as has been the case for the past 33 years and as is the case in most countries of the world.

What we have witnessed in recent days is a political campaign that has contained many untrue allegations. All clemency decisions are inherently divisive, and when I make decisions about the hundreds of clemency applications that are put before me, I try to do so with the utmost care,” she said.

“We respect the President's decision”

– Balázs Orbán, the Prime Minister's Political Director was the only one to react to the case on behalf of the government during the first days, when he answered a question from Hvg.hu at the government's off-site meeting in Sopronbánfalva.

"The right to pardon belongs exclusively to the head of state, regardless of whether we individually agree with her or not," Fidesz parliamentary group leader Máté Kocsis wrote on Facebook on Tuesday evening, and then proceeded to criticize the left. “The left should be very silent, as they didn't vote for the anti-pedophile law in 2021, they did not back having the most severe penalty given to pedophile criminals, they opposed having a searchable pedophile registry, and they wanted to have the child protection referendum declared invalid.”

For the past few days, opposition parties have been calling for the President's resignation. DK and MSZP are initiating impeachment proceedings against Novák, while the former has also launched a petition calling for the resignation of the head of state. Momentum is staging a demonstration in front of the President's office on Friday evening, while Párbeszéd is calling for an amendment to the law stipulating that in the future, the justification on decisions of clemency would have to be made public.

There is no appeal against a presidential pardon, and the president cannot revoke or correct it retroactively. Constitutional lawyer Richard Szentpéteri Nagy told Telex that although formally, it is the President who makes the decision on clemency cases,

the political responsibility lies with the government.

Pardon requests are submitted to the Minister of Justice – last April, this was Judit Varga – who then submits a proposal to the President and subsequently signs it himself or herself.

The question of Varga's responsibility is also interesting because, according to press reports, she will be the leader of the Fidesz-KDNP list for the European Parliamentary elections in June. Opposition parties are now arguing that it would be undignified for Varga to represent Hungary in the European Parliament and are therefore demanding that Fidesz remove her from the top of its EP list.