Ruling Fidesz will nominate incumbent Family Minister and former Fidesz deputy leader, Katalin Novák, for Hungary’s next president, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán announced on Tuesday.
Incumbent president János Áder’s term expires next spring, meaning that the next president may be appointed before the upcoming elections in this parliamentary cycle. Since the ruling alliance has a two-thirds majority, their objective would be fulfilled.
At his yearly international press briefing, Orbán voiced regret that the constitution restricted the president’s tenure to two terms, adding that Fidesz, of which he is chairman, had tendered its nomination.
This latest news eventually put an end to speculations about Hungary’s next number one public dignitary.
Novák started working in politics back in 2001 (during the first Orbán administration) at the Foreign Ministry, specializing in European matters. In 2010, she became a ministerial advisor, and two years later she was appointed Head of Cabinet of the Ministry of Human Capacities (EMMI). In 2014, she was named EMMI’s State Secretary for Family and Youth Affairs, eventually becoming Minister of Family Affairs in October 2020. Between 2017 and 2021, she was also one of Fidesz’s vice-presidents.
In response to a question on how could a Fidesz party politician express the unity of the nation, Orbán said that in his view (Fidesz founder and one of the party’s most influential politicians) János Áder was a great Hungarian president too, adding that if (former liberal SZDSZ politician) Árpád Göncz and Áder succeeded, Katalin Novák will succeed too.
Orbán said that a new family affairs minister was set to be appointed from Jan. 1.
Speaking to public media in the afternoon, Novák said it was an “honour” to accept the nomination. “For me, Hungarian families and Hungarian children are the most important, and I will continue to work for them in future,” she said, adding that she would take inspiration and gain strength from her family supporting her and her faith in God.
“If I am elected as Hungary’s first female president, I will represent Hungary and will seek to represent the whole nation,” she said.
Novák said the incumbent president was a flagbearer advocating the issue of protecting the created world.
“It is for me equally important that we be able to give our Planet Earth back to our children and grandchildren in a better shape than how it was when we inherited it,” Novák said. “But in order to achieve that goal, we first need to have children and grandchildren.”
In the featured photo: Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, Family Minister Katalin Novák, and President János Áder. Photo by Noémi Bruzák/MTI