Katalin Novak, a close ally of Prime Minister Viktor Orban, announced in a televised message that she would step down from the presidency, an office she has held since 2022.
It followed a week of outrage over the revelation that Novak had issued a presidential pardon in April 2023 to a man convicted of hiding a string of child sexual abuses in a state-run children’s home.
“I issued a pardon that caused bewilderment and unrest for many people,” she said on Saturday. “I made a mistake.”
The man had been sentenced in 2018 to more than three years in prison after being found guilty of pressurising victims to retract claims of sexual abuse against the director of the home, who was sentenced to eight years for abusing at least 10 children between 2004 and 2016.
This week, Hungarian opposition parties had demanded Novak's resignation over the case and on Friday a thousand demonstrators rallied at Novak's office calling for her to quit.
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