Former Minister of Justice Judit Varga announced her resignation, who countersigned the controversial presidential pardon signed by Katalin Novák, who resigned on Saturday afternoon, while she was still head of the ministry.

Varga worked as the chairman of the European Affairs Committee and as a member of parliament, and according to press reports, he would have been the leader of the EP list of the governing parties in the June 9 elections.

The former minister wrote on his social media page:

assumes political responsibility and resigns from his position as a member of Parliament and leader of the EP list.

Since the system change, the validity of the president's individual pardon decision requires the countersignature of the Minister of Justice. I continued the more than 25-year-old practice that the Minister of Justice takes note of the president's clemency decision. I take political responsibility for countersigning the president's decision. I am withdrawing from public life, I am resigning from my mandate as a member of Parliament and from the leadership of the EP list. I would like to thank everyone for their work with whom I have been able to work in a team in recent years. Hungary can continue to count on me to protect our national interests and values.

He would have gone from state secretary to justice minister, then headed for Brussels

Between 2009 and 2018, Judit Varga was a political advisor in the European Parliament (where she was a member of the team of MEP János Áder, later President of the Republic, for three years), and then became the Prime Minister's State Secretary responsible for EU relations for one year. In July 2019, he became the Minister of Justice of the fourth Orbán government, replacing László Trócsányi. He was also Minister of Justice in the fifth Orbán cabinet.

During the years spent in Brussels and Strasbourg, he gained detailed knowledge of the functioning of the European Union's institutional system and legislation. All the while, he took a hard stand in the debates, his confrontational rhetoric and his social posts criticizing EU institutions were soon known in Brussels.

In June of last year, Judit Varga announced that she was resigning from her position as head of ministry (she was succeeded by Bence Tuzson) and revealed in an interview that she was taking on tasks in Brussels. Varga, who also works as a Member of Parliament, was given a new position, becoming the President of the European Affairs Committee. Then he said:

I feel that I can do much more in the future if my commitment to the interests of the Hungarian people now takes center stage in European politics. From the point of view of the future of Europe, the campaign is now the most important thing: the European right wing, the conservatives, must be convinced that they can win this election. And this job requires a complete person.

Although it was not officially announced (since the committee has not yet voted on it), according to press reports, Judit Varga would have been the leader of the EP list of the governing parties. According to several analysts, the Prime Minister may have decided to have Judit Varga lead the Fidesz-KDNP EP list in the European Parliament elections on June 9 because of the Schadl-Völner trial. As is well known, the secondary defendant in the high-profile corruption case, former State Secretary of Justice Pál Völner, was a direct colleague of the minister. Many believed that the Völner affair had burned the minister, so it was an absolutely rational decision on the part of the prime minister to send one of his most reliable comrades in arms to Brussels instead.

At the end of January, he gave a closed speech in the Parliament Hall, with which, according to press reports, he announced the European program of the governing parties.

However, he will certainly not carry it out.

Featured image: Judit Varga/Facebook