Hungary parliament elects new president following scandal | Politics Information

Parliament approves appointment of Tamas Sulyok, 67, a Constitutional Court docket chief, to switch Katalin Novak.

Hungary’s parliament has elected a political novice as president after the resignation of his predecessor, who prompted outrage by pardoning a person convicted in a toddler abuse case.

The affair has became the most important political disaster that nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban has confronted since his return to energy in 2010.

Orban ally Katalin Novak resigned as president this month after it was revealed she had pardoned a convicted baby abuser’s confederate.

Final week, ruling celebration Fidesz nominated Constitutional Court docket head Tamas Sulyok, 67, to switch Novak, Hungary’s first feminine president.

On Monday, parliament, the place Fidesz’s ruling coalition with the Christian Democratic Individuals’s Social gathering holds a two-thirds majority, permitted his appointment, after which he took the oath of workplace.

He’ll turn into president on March 5.

Little recognized to the broader public, Sulyok turned a Constitutional Court docket decide in 2014 and, two years later, the courtroom’s head.

The opposition has criticised the nomination of politically inexperienced Sulyok. About 3,000 folks attended a Sunday protest by 4 opposition events, calling for direct presidential elections. The submit is essentially ceremonial.

‘Duller presidency’

The Novak scandal broke this month when the information web site 444 revealed that she had pardoned the previous deputy director of a youngsters’s residence final 12 months.

The person was sentenced in 2022 to a few years and 4 months in jail for serving to to cowl up his boss’s sexual abuse of kids and adolescents there.

Tens of hundreds of individuals have protested towards the presidential pardon in Hungary, whose authorities has lengthy campaigned on a pledge to guard youngsters.

Orban has likened the resignation of Novak to a “nightmare” however harassed it was the fitting choice.

When opening the parliament session on Monday, he described Sulyok as somebody with “huge expertise, revered information and undisputed authority”.

“I consider that Hungary wants such a president now,” he mentioned.

Underneath Sulyok, the Constitutional Court docket made a number of controversial rulings, together with on academics’ rights to strike.

To calm anger over the pardon scandal, Orban has promised to tighten present legal guidelines to bar convicted baby abusers from receiving clemency.

He additionally needs to vet these working with youngsters to verify they’ve handed the “applicable suitability check”, overlaying “way of life, sexual deviance and psychological health”.