Normally scandals and resignations in EU countries are the sort of thing which get Brexiteers to chuckle and reflect on how fortunate we are to be out of the stinking swamp of Brussels politics. But what has unfolded in Hungary really hurts…there is no other way to put it.
Over the weekend Hungary’s President Katalin Novak and former Justice Minister Judit Varga both dramatically resigned from public life over a rapidly unfolding scandal around the pardon of a former deputy director of a children’s home accused of covering up the paedophilia of his boss.
Express readers may wonder why should we care about the resignation of two politicians they have not heard of in a middling European country now we are out.
It is a fair question, but the answer is we should care a lot because of the European Parliament election and the likelihood now that the ultra-federalist Brexit Britain haters of Guy Verhofstadt and Ursula von der Leyen will win.
Novak and Varga were not just leading politicians in their own country both women were superstars of a new conservative right across Europe and were key elements of the battle against the creeping power of Brussels, the preservation of nation states and democracy, and the war on woke.
Who are Katalin Novak and Judit Varga?
Express.co.uk has interviewed both women and their ability was without question. Both Novak and Varga are highly charismatic, intelligent and articulate politicians. Both had an incredible clarity of vision and courage to take on the EU elites and stand up for conservatism.
They are very much cut in the same mold of US female, politicians – glamourous, highly polished, tremendous media performers and very much on message.
Not surprisingly both were key allies of the much maligned Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who may now be struggling for a successor in his ruling Fidesz party now that the two women have gone. Although at 60 he may consider he still has plenty of time.
Novak had spearheaded the much heralded pro-family policy which had seen welfare targeted at couples getting married and having children. It is incredibly popular in Hungary and has become a beacon of new conservatism around the world with champions like Miriam Cates in the UK. It made Novak herself a star on the US conservative circuit.
Varga as justice minister was also involved in the family policy but even more importantly the war on woke. She was behind policies to prevent LGBTQ+ lessons in schools and took on the EU which tried to force woke ideologies on to her country.
However, Varga after quitting as a minister had the most important role of all.
She was the lead figure coordinating ann attempt to shift the balance of power in the EU from centrist, woke federalists supporting von der Leyen’s anti-democratic pro-bureaucratic vision of the bloc to a pro-nation state, anti-woke, Brexit sympathising grouping.
Were Novak and Varga “set up”?
So the sorry tale goes back to late April last year when Pope Francis made a visit to Hungary. As part of the celebrations for a Catholic country the government decided to provide clemency for 25 convicted criminals in accord with Francis’s plea for forgiveness.
The list was drawn up by civil servants but signed off by Varga as Justice Minister and then handed to Novak who as President had the power to enact it. This happened without much comment, the visit was a great success and all seemed well with the world.
But then early this year the list of 25 was published and it turned out that one of those given clemency was a man who had tried to protect his colleague who was convicted of paedophilia. The individual in question had coerced young children who had been sexually abused in a children’s home to retract their evidence.
There was an outcry and demands that both women resign from public life. Protests began and the opposition parties appeared to be getting some traction.
They had a point. Both these women had been involved in the pro-family policy and had been advocates of being tough on crime, especially against children. It appeared to be gross hypocrisy. But here is where things get mirky.
What is not clear why they both signed off this clemency. There was no obvious interest in it for them. There is a suggestion that important details may have been withheld which they probably should have asked more searching questions on.
But one Hungarian source has told Express.co.uk that they are sure “it was a set up”. The question is by who? Does Hungary have a woke civil service like the one in Whitehall which happily sent pictures of Partygate about Boris Johnson to help bring him down? Maybe.
Orban, though, not a politician to be messed with, has clearly decided that he has to stop the rot before it sets in. So we have had no desperate attempt to cling on to power by either woman. Instead with a dramatic statement on state television from Novak both resigned with immediate effect.
Perhaps a lesson there for UK political leaders on dealing with bad apples. Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer clinging on to his Rochdale candidate despite him repeating anti-Semitic conspiracy theories is a case in point.
It seems likely that boh women after a period of contrition may find a way back into politics at some point should they wish it but it will not be for some time. In the meantime, centre right politics in Europe has been left with a void.
The European elections
When Geert Wilders’s Freedom Party topped the poll in the Netherlands last year on the back of Giorgia Meloni’s victory in Italy in September 2022 it seemed that the anti-Brussels centre right was on the march in Europe.
There was a real chance that the ultra federalists, who still want to take revenge on Britain and drag it back into the iron grip of the EU would face a major setback in June with the European Parliament election takes place.
Even without the UK there to elect a battalion of Ukip or Brexit Party MEPs, the new nationalist centre right could have become the major force in Strasbourg and slowed down or even halted von der Leyen and the Commission’s neverending power grab.
But the resignations of Novak and Varga represents a turn in the tide. Varga’s role was essentially to travel around Europe galvanising the centre right nationalist parties which were sympathetic to Brexit. Now that side of EU politics has lost an important leader and coordinator. Replacing that sort of energy, charisma and clarity of vision is not easy.
Already the narrow defeat of the Law and Justice Party in Poland by former European Council President Donald Tusk’s coalition late last year had been a big win for allies of von der Leyen. Hungary and Italy were left along fighting for national sovereignty with the threat of using funding from Brussels if they did not end the knee to the Commission.
There is still a long way to go before June and it may be that unhappiness with the political elites will see a change in the election. But as we found out with Brexit, revolutions only happen with leaders like Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson. The European right has just lost two its leaders for now and the future.
