Hungarian president Novak resigns after child abuser pardon controversy

Hungary's first woman president Katalin Novak has announced on national television on Saturday that she was resigning. Her pardoning a man who helped cover up a sex abuse case in a children's home prompted the pressure.Novak, a former minister for family policy became the first woman to hold the essentially ceremonial role of president in March 2022.

The controversy was sparked by the pardon given last April, amid a visit by Pope Francis to Budapest, to a former deputy director of a children's home who helped to cover up his boss sexually abusing kids and adolescents there. The country's opposition has been calling for Novak's resignation.