Hungary’s Parliament elects country’s first female President

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Hungary’s Parliament elected Fidesz Vice President and Family and Youth Affairs Minister Katalin Novak as the country’s next President on Thursday, succeeding President Janos Ader, according to Hungary Today. She was elected with 137 out of 188 votes. The united opposition’s candidate Peter Ronai received 51 votes. Having previously pledged to protect and enforce the constitution, Novak was sworn in immediately following the parliamentary vote.

Born in Szeged in southern Hungary, the 44-year-old Novak is both the youngest person and the first female to become Hungary’s President since the political changes of 1989. She began her career in government in the country’s Foreign Ministry before serving stints in the Ministry of Human Resources and eventually becoming Family and Youth Affairs Minister. She is married with three children.

In her tenure as Family and Youth Affairs Minister, the government introduced a housing allowance for families, childcare allowance, housing renovation allowance, and income tax exemption for mothers of four.

On her official website as Family Minister, she writes: ““As a mother of three, I know how arduous it can be to manage the seemingly mundane but often very difficult tasks of raising one, two, or more children and managing the household on a daily basis, all while working. Therefore, my priority as Minister of Family Affairs is to give mothers the choice and freedom to decide for themselves when they want to return to work, to create a work-life balance, and to provide real help for the life situations of young Hungarians and families.”

Katalin Novak’s election to the presidency was largely seen as a “shoe-in” given the ruling majority Fidesz’s two-thirds majority in Parliement. Hungary’s united opposition parties pointed out on Wednesday that it was “unfair” that the incumbent Fidesz-Christian Democrat (KDNP) parliamentary majority was deciding on Hungary’s next president just weeks before the end of its mandate, as the country’s Parliamentary elections are scheduled for 3 April.

Source: Hungary Today, Budapest Times, Hungary Today

Drew Leifheit