Katalin Novak, close to Viktor Orban, new Hungarian president
Katalin Novak in Parliament in Budapest on March 10, 2022.
© Attila KISBENEDEK / AFP
Text by: RFI Follow
2 mins
It is a forties, trilingual and conservative, former Minister of the Family who will become - this Thursday - the first woman in the history of Hungary to lead the country.
A consecration for Katalin Novak, a follower of Fidesz, close to Viktor Orban.
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Katalin Novak, a close friend of Viktor Orban, becomes the first woman to occupy this ceremonial position in the Central European country.
The 44-year-old former minister won 137 votes, against 51 for her opposition rival, economist Peter Rona.
Long responsible for family policy, arriving on March 10 in Parliament accompanied by husband and children, Katalin Novak defends a traditional vision of the family and wishes to put an end to demographic decline.
"
We women raise children, take care of the sick, cook, can be in two places at the same time, earn our living, teach, win Nobel Prizes
," she said in a speech just before vote.
If this election by indirect suffrage was folded in advance, it is otherwise with the legislative elections of April 3, 2022. For the first time, it is a united opposition which faces the Fidesz party of the Prime Minister in power for ten years.
For Catherine Horel, research director at the CNRS, the choice of a woman for the presidency is not insignificant.
“
We already had a female Speaker of Parliament, Szili Katalin, several years ago, so Hungarians are not hostile at all to the presence of a woman.
Moreover, in the opposition platform which will face Mr. Orban, on April 3 in the elections, originally we thought it would be a woman instead of his current challenger...
I think that is also the reason for the choice of a woman by (the president) to say "you see, in the end, it is I who will impose a woman at the head of the country, and not you" . “
A message sent to the opposition as if to signify:
“
I am the progressive who will put a woman at the head of the country
”, analyzes Catherine Horel, at the microphone of
Sylvie Noël
, from the international service.
►Also read: Hungary: Viktor Orban launches his campaign for the legislative elections
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Hungary
Victor Orban