Katalin Éva Veresné Novák (, born 6 September 1977) is a Hungarian politician who served as

president of Hungary The president of Hungary, officially the president of the republicUnder the Basic Law, adopted in 2011, the official name of the state is simply Hungary; Before, the state was called the Republic of Hungary. However, the office is nonetheless ...

from 2022 to 2024. Elected at the age of 44, she was the first woman and youngest person ever to hold the post. Prior to her presidency, she had been a member of the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repr ...

for

Fidesz Fidesz – Hungarian Civic Alliance (; ) is a national-conservative political party in Hungary led by Viktor Orbán. It has increasingly identified as illiberal. Originally formed in 1988 under the name of Alliance of Young Democrats () as ...

from 2018 to 2022, during which time she had also served as Minister for Family Affairs in the

fourth Orbán government The fourth Orbán government (Hungarian language, Hungarian: ''negyedik Orbán-kormány'') was the Government of Hungary from 18 May 2018 to 24 May 2022, after the 2018 Hungarian parliamentary election, 2018 parliamentary elections, led by Viktor ...

, from 2020 to 2021. In early 2024, Novák became embroiled in—and eventually resigned due to—a scandal involving her April 2023

presidential pardon A pardon is a government decision to allow a person to be relieved of some or all of the legal consequences resulting from a criminal conviction. A pardon may be granted before or after conviction for the crime, depending on the laws of the j ...

of Endre Kónya, a former deputy director of an orphanage in

Bicske Bicske (; or ) is a town in Fejér County, Hungary. It is around west of Budapest. Its administration has undergone many changes; it has been a settlement, a village, a market town, and a village constituting an administrative division. History ...

who had been imprisoned due to his involvement in a

pedophilia Pedophilia ( alternatively spelled paedophilia) is a psychiatric disorder in which an adult or older adolescent experiences a primary or exclusive sexual attraction to prepubescent children. Although girls typically begin the process of pube ...

case implicating the orphanage's director.

Education

After completing her secondary education at the at Szeged in 1996, Novák studied economics at the

Corvinus University of Budapest Corvinus University of Budapest () is a private university, private research university in Budapest, Hungary. The university currently has an enrolment of approximately 9,600 students, with a primary focus on business administration, economics, ...

and law at the

University of Szeged The University of Szeged () is a Public university, public research university in Szeged, Hungary. Established as the Jesuit Academy of Kolozsvár in present-day Cluj-Napoca in 1581, the institution was re-established as a university in 1872 by ...

. While a student, she also studied abroad at the

Paris Nanterre University Paris Nanterre University (), formerly University of Paris West, Paris-X and commonly referred to as Nanterre, is a public research university based in Nanterre, Hauts-de-Seine, France, in the Paris metropolitan area. It is one of the most pres ...

. In addition to her native Hungarian, Novák speaks French, English, German, and Spanish.

Political career

Novák began working at the Hungarian

Ministry of Foreign Affairs In many countries, the ministry of foreign affairs (abbreviated as MFA or MOFA) is the highest government department exclusively or primarily responsible for the state's foreign policy and relations, diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral r ...

in 2001, specializing in European Union and European matters. In 2010, she became a ministerial advisor. and was appointed Head of Cabinet of the Ministry of Human Resources in 2012. In 2014 she became State Secretary for Family and Youth Affairs at the Ministry of Human Capacities, eventually becoming Minister of Family Affairs in October 2020. She held this position until December 2021. She served as Vice President of Fidesz between 2017 and 2021. On 21 December 2021, Prime Minister

Viktor Orbán Viktor Mihály Orbán (; born 31 May 1963) is a Hungarian lawyer and politician who has been the 56th prime minister of Hungary since 2010, previously holding the office from 1998 to 2002. He has also led the Fidesz political party since 200 ...

announced that Novák would be Fidesz's nominee in the 2022 presidential election. On 10 March 2022, she won gaining 137 out of 188 votes in the National Assembly. Novák is the first woman to hold the office of president in its history.

Presidency (2022-2024)

In April 2023, the

passed a bill enabling and encouraging citizens to report same-sex couples who raise children to the state authorities, such as

police The police are Law enforcement organization, a constituted body of Law enforcement officer, people empowered by a State (polity), state with the aim of Law enforcement, enforcing the law and protecting the Public order policing, public order ...

and child protection. Novák

vetoed A veto is a legal power to unilaterally stop an official action. In the most typical case, a president (government title), president or monarch vetoes a bill (law), bill to stop it from becoming statutory law, law. In many countries, veto powe ...

the bill, and formally prevented it from becoming enacted into law. In May 2022, she condemned the

Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

. In the context of the 2023

Gaza war The Gaza war is an armed conflict in the Gaza Strip and southern Israel fought since 7 October 2023. A part of the unresolved Israeli–Palestinian conflict, Israeli–Palestinian and Gaza–Israel conflict, Gaza–Israel conflicts dating ...

, she condemned

Hamas The Islamic Resistance Movement, abbreviated Hamas (the Arabic acronym from ), is a Palestinian nationalist Sunni Islam, Sunni Islamism, Islamist political organisation with a military wing, the Qassam Brigades. It has Gaza Strip under Hama ...

' attack on Israel and expressed her support for the latter's right to self-defence. On 5 November 2023, Novák visited Israel to express solidarity with the country.

Pardon affair and resignation

In April 2023, prior to and in commemoration of

Pope Francis Pope Francis (born Jorge Mario Bergoglio; 17 December 1936 – 21 April 2025) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 13 March 2013 until Death and funeral of Pope Francis, his death in 2025. He was the fi ...

's pastoral visit to Hungary, Novák issued a series of presidential pardons, including that of far-right activist and domestic terrorist

György Budaházy György Budaházy (born 3 June 1969) is a Hungarian nationalist and far-right activist. Education and early life Budaházy was born in Budapest on 3 June 1969. His early years were spent in the Kelenföld housing estate. After graduating from ...

and Endre Kónya. Kónya had been the deputy director of an orphanage in

who had been convicted of covering up the director's molesting of children at the institution. When Kónya's pardon—later thought to have been issued under pressure from Zoltán Balog, Novák's erstwhile mentor and synodal president of the Hungarian Reformed Church—was made public on 2 February 2024, national controversy ensued, becoming known as the "pardon affair" (). Protests erupted in

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

demanding Novák's resignation, with commentators viewing the scandal as especially damaging to Fidesz's credibility as a defender of traditional family values. On 9 February, Novák cut short her attendance at the World Water Polo Championships in

Qatar Qatar, officially the State of Qatar, is a country in West Asia. It occupies the Geography of Qatar, Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it shares Qatar–Saudi Arabia border, its sole land b ...

and flew home to Budapest, where she announced her resignation shortly after arriving on 10 February. In her resignation address, she also apologized to Kónya's victims. Judit Varga, who was serving as

Minister of Justice A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice, is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a ...

in 2023 and had countersigned the pardon, also resigned as a member of parliament and withdrew her candidacy for

member of the European Parliament A member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been Election, elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the European Coal and S ...

in the 2024 election. In response, Orbán said that he would introduce a constitutional amendment to bar convicted child abusers from receiving clemency. As part of continued fallout from the scandal, Balog resigned from the synodal presidency of the Hungarian Reformed Church on 16 February 2024. The

formally accepted, and thus made Novák's resignation effective, on 26 February 2024. She was succeeded in an acting capacity by speaker of the National Assembly

László Kövér László Kövér (; born 29 December 1959) is a Hungarian politician who is the current List of speakers of the National Assembly (Hungary), speaker of the National Assembly of Hungary. Under his capacity as speaker, he was also twice acting pre ...

. She was the second head of state to resign in Hungary's post-communist history after

Pál Schmitt Pál Schmitt (; born 1942) is a Hungarian Olympic fencer and politician who served as President of Hungary from 2010 until his resignation in 2012, following his academic misconduct controversy. Schmitt was a successful fencer in his ...

, who did so in the wake of a plagiarism scandal in 2012.

Personal life

Novák is married and has three children. Her husband is economist István Veres, director of the Financial Market and Foreign Exchange Market Directorate at the

Hungarian National Bank The Hungarian National Bank ( , MNB) is the central bank of Hungary and as such part of the European System of Central Banks (ESCB). It was established in 1924 as a successor entity of the Austro-Hungarian Bank, under the economic assistance ...

(MNB). She is a Reformed Christian. Novák is firmly committed to opposing what she calls "

gender ideology The anti-gender movement is a global phenomenon that opposes concepts often referred to as "gender ideology" or "gender theory". These loosely-defined terms are commonly used by the movement to critique a range of issues related to gender equ ...

". She supported a constitutional reform in 2020 to strengthen the ban on adoption by

same-sex couples A same-sex relationship is a romantic or sexual relationship between people of the same sex. ''Same-sex marriage'' refers to the institutionalized recognition of such relationships in the form of a marriage; civil unions may exist in countries ...

by stating that "the mother is a woman, the father is a man". The amendments also stipulate that single people will only be able to adopt with the express authorization of the minister, to prevent homosexuals from circumventing the ban. In a video published in 2020, she argues that "women must not always compete with men", or "constantly compare themselves with men by having a similar position and salary to them".

Honours and awards

Domestic

Hungarian Order of Saint Stephen Ribbon Bar

Hungarian Order of Saint Stephen The Hungarian Order of Saint Stephen ( Hungarian: ''Magyar Szent István Rend'') is the highest state honour bestowed by the President of Hungary. The order is made up of one grade and is awarded in recognition of the most special merits, outst ...

(2022)
According to the

Constitution of Hungary The Fundamental Law of Hungary (), the country's constitution, was adopted by parliament on 18 April 2011, promulgated by the president a week later and entered into force on 1 January 2012. It is Hungary's first constitution adopted within a dem ...

's CCII/2011 law the president of Hungary receives the Hungarian Order of Saint Stephen ''

ex-officio An ''ex officio'' member is a member of a body (notably a board, committee, or council) who is part of it by virtue of holding another office. The term ''List of Latin phrases (E)#ex officio, ex officio'' is Latin, meaning literally 'from the off ...

''. * Grand Cross with Chain of the

Hungarian Order of Merit The Hungarian Order of Merit () is the fourth highest State Order of Hungary. Founded in 1991, the order is a revival of an original order founded in 1946 and abolished in 1949. Its origins, however, can be traced to the Order of Merit of the K ...

(2022)
According to the

's CCII/2011 law the president of Hungary receives the Grand Cross with Chain of the Hungarian Order of Merit ''

''.

Foreign

* : Knight (''Chevalier'') of the

National Order of the Legion of Honour The National Order of the Legion of Honour ( ), formerly the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour (), is the highest and most prestigious French national order of merit, both military and civil. Currently consisting of five classes, it was ...

(2019) * : Commander's Cross of the

Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland The Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland () is a Polish order of merit created in 1974, awarded to persons who have rendered great service to Poland. It is granted to foreigners or Poles resident abroad. As such, it is sometimes referred to as ...

(2019) * : Grand Collar of the

Order of Prince Henry The Order of Prince Henry () is a Portuguese order of knighthood created on 2 June 1960, to commemorate the quincentenary of the death of the Portuguese ''infante'' Prince Henry the Navigator, one of the main initiators of the Age of Discovery. M ...

(2023)

Dynastic

House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies The House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies is a cadet branch of the House of Bourbon that ruled Southern Italy and Sicily for more than a century in the 18th and 19th centuries. It descends from the Capetian dynasty in legitimate male line through Phili ...

: Dame Grand Cross of the

Royal Order of Francis I The Royal Order of Francis I (properly 'The Royal Order of Francis I of the Two Sicilies' ) was an extinct order of merit of the former Kingdom of the Two Sicilies which was annexed in 1861 by the King of Italy (until 1860 King of Piedmont and S ...

(2023)

References

External links

* , - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Novak, Katalin 1977 births Living people People from Szeged Presidents of Hungary Fidesz politicians Members of the National Assembly of Hungary (2018–2022) Women members of the National Assembly of Hungary Women government ministers of Hungary Female heads of state Women presidents in Europe Corvinus University of Budapest alumni University of Szeged alumni Knights of the Legion of Honour Commanders of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland Hungarian Calvinist and Reformed Christians First women presidents 21st-century women presidents