Katalin Novák officially no longer President of Hungary

It is now official: as of Monday, Katalin Novák, who was embroiled in the pardon scandal, is no longer the President of Hungary, as all 196 members of the Hungarian Parliament had accepted her resignation.

Novák announced on 10 February that she would resign from the post of President of Hungary after it emerged that last April she had granted a presidential pardon to Endre K., who had covered up the actions of the paedophile director of the Bicske children's home. In her resignation speech she said: "I decided to grant the pardon because I believed that the convicted man had not taken advantage of the vulnerability of the children entrusted to his care. I made a mistake, because the decision to grant clemency and the lack of justification were suitable for raising doubts in light of the zero tolerance policy on paedophilia". She then apologised to any victims who may have felt she had failed to stand up for them. However, it still remains unclear why she had pardoned Endre K.

Novák has since completely disappeared from the public eye. Although she had one last opportunity to speak in Parliament prior to today's vote, she did not attend the session.

Viktor Orbán did not react to the pardon scandal for a long time, eventually speaking about it in his annual State of the Nation Address on 17 February. In it, he said that by resigning, Katalin Novák made the right decision, but her departure is a great loss for Hungary. "2024 could not have started worse. It's like a nightmare. We are all devastated," Orbán said, describing Novák as a president who worked for the Hungarian people and their families and represented Hungary in a worthy manner around the world.

“We all saw her as the right person to be President. She personified the better side of us Hungarians, all our good qualities. She was a mother, always kind and prepared, and she never sought to prove her worth in comparison to men and didn't want to be measured by their standards. That always impressed me.”

According to the law, even after her resignation, Novák is still to be addressed as president, just like her predecessors, Pál Schmitt and János Áder. Former presidents earn the same amount as the current head of state for the rest of their lives: 1.1 times the House Speaker's salary, which is currently HUF 4.5 million (slightly more than 11,500 euros) gross per month.

Novák and her family will have to move out of the presidential residence, but the Parliament Office will provide her with another residence along with one staff member, and the state will cover the upkeep costs of the building for the rest of her life. The former president is also entitled to a three-person secretarial staff for the rest of her life, free medical care and a car with a driver provided by the police. The office and the operational costs of her secretariat will also be covered by the Parliament Office. Novák will continue to be able to travel first class both by plane and by train on all her official business abroad.

Following the acceptance of Katalin Novák's resignation, Parliament will be voting on the next head of state, Tamás Sulyok, who is the candidate of the governing parties. However, he will only take office on 5 March, so in the eight days in between, the President of the National Assembly, László Kövér, will assume the duties and powers of the president. Kövér has already served as president once before: in 2012, after the resignation of Pál Schmitt on 2 April, he held the post for more than a month, until 9 May.