In early 2024, Novák became embroiled in a scandal involving her April 2023 presidential pardon of Endre Kónya, a former deputy director of an orphanage in Bicske who had been imprisoned due to his involvement in a pedophilia case implicating the orphanage's director.

Endre K was sentenced in 2022 to three years and four months in prison and was barred for a further five years from all activities and occupations in connection with minors.

At least 1,000 people protested in the country’s capital on Friday, demanding her resignation. Hungarian opposition parties had also demanded she leave office.

“I made a mistake … Today is the last day that I address you as a president,” she said in a speech broadcast on state television.

Novak decided to pardon some two dozen people in April 2023

Endre K was sentenced in 2022 to three years and four months in prison and was barred for a further five years from all activities and occupations in connection with minors.

At least 1,000 people protested in the country’s capital on Friday, demanding her resignation. Hungarian opposition parties had also demanded she leave office.

“I made a mistake … Today is the last day that I address you as a president,” she said in a speech broadcast on state television.