Following her inauguration in May 2022, less than two years had passed with Katalin Novák as Hungary’s president until the parliament accepted her resignation last week. Despite her downfall, Novák’s career, particularly her presidential role, was a notable episode in the history of Orbán’s system, and not only because – as Péter Tölgyessy had recently put it in Partizán’s podcast – the Prime Minister might have seen her as his successor.
Novák, entering Fidesz’s frontline in the second half of the 2010s, may have represented something of a new beginning in the party’s personnel policy in many respects. She was the first female politician to receive significant responsibilities from Viktor Orbán, not only domestically, but also internationally. Novák is younger than the middle-aged men representing the party’s forefront (she is still only 46), is multilingual, and her political character was defined not by the confrontational style typical of Fidesz – but rather, by her smile. A competent woman who is also a mother of three: that’s how the career leading to the presidential seat started, coming to an unexpected end with the clemency scandal.
Viktor Orbán’s personal project