Hungarians react as president resigns over child sexual abuse pardon

(10 Feb 2024)

RESTRICTIONS SUMMARY:

ASSOCIATED PRESS
++NIGHT SHOTS++
Budapest, Hungary - 10 February 2024
1. Wide of demonstrators chanting in front of the presidential palace
2. Wide of speaker
3. SOUNDBITE (Hungarian Anna Bujna, demonstrator:
"I’m glad that she resigned, but I think things aren’t solved this way.”
4. Various of demonstrators
5. SOUNDBITE (Hungarian) Anna Bujna, demonstrator:
"She’s not the main criminal, you’ve got to look all the way to the top. I think she has good intentions, but I know she’s a big fan of Orban. The truth needs to be found, and it’s scary that a Fidesz person is going to replace her.”
6. Wide crowd
7. Wide of a speaker
8. Wide of clapping crowd
9. SOUNDBITE (Hungarian) Tamas Fazekas, demonstrator:
"After resigning, she'll have benefits, a bodyguard, housing and money for the rest of her life. And she says, ‘So what?’”
10. Various of demonstrators
11. SOUNDBITE (Hungarian) Erzsebet Szapunczay, demonstrator:
"I'm very, very glad, but she should have resigned from the first moment, like many people in this government, because she’s not alone. Her resignation was correct, because this way she saves herself from even more people hating her and being outraged that she represented this country until now.”
12. Various of a speaker
13. Various of demonstrators chanting
STORYLINE:
After Hungarian president Katalin Novak announced her resignation on Saturday, people gathered in front of the presidential palace expressing their views on Novak's decision.

Demonstrators said they were happy with Novak stepping down, but that it wasn't enough to fundamentally change the system of Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

"I’m glad that she resigned but I think things aren’t solved this way. She’s not the main criminal, you’ve got to look all the way to the top," said Anna Bujna.

Erzsebet Szapunczay, another attendee, said she was "very, very happy” with Novak's resignation, but that “she should have resigned from the first moment, like many people in this government, because she’s not alone.”

"Her resignation was correct, because this way she saves herself from even more people hating her and being outraged that she represented this country until now,” she said.

Hungary’s conservative president has resigned amid public outcry over a pardon she granted to a man convicted as an accomplice in a child sexual abuse case, a decision that unleashed an un-precedented political scandal for the long-serving nationalist government.

Katalin Novak announced in a televised message on Saturday that she would step down from the presidency, an office she has held since 2022. Her decision came after more than a week of public outrage after it was revealed that she 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.

Novak’s resignation came as a rare piece of political turmoil for Hungary’s nationalist governing party Fidesz, which has ruled with a constitutional majority since 2010.

Under the leadership of populist Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Fidesz has been accused of dismantling democratic institutions and rigging the electoral system and media in its favour.

Novak, a key Orban ally and a former vice president of Fidesz, served as Hungary’s minister for families until her appointment to the presidency. She has been outspoken in advocating for traditional family values and the protection of children.

She was the first female president in Hungary’s history, and the youngest person to ever hold the office.





Video shot for AP by Bela Szandelszky



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