Hungary President Schmitt Quits in Plagiarism Scandal
Hungary’s President Pal Schmitt says he is resigning, after being stripped of his doctorate over plagiarism.
Mr Schmitt, elected in 2010, said “my personal issue divides my beloved nation rather than unites it”.
“It is my duty to end my service and resign my mandate as president,” he told parliament.
Last week, Budapest’s Semmelweis University revoked his 1992 award after finding that much of his thesis had been copied.
Mr Schmitt, 69, won gold medals for fencing at the 1968 and 1972 Olympic Games.
He was elected to the largely ceremonial role of president for a five-year term, with strong backing from the conservative ruling Fidesz party of Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
The university said whole passages of his thesis about the modern Olympic Games had been copied from the work of two other academics.
He denied wrongdoing and resisted calls for him to go, but on Saturday protesters in Budapest stepped up the pressure for him to resign.
Turbulent politics
The scandal comes at a sensitive time for the Fidesz government, whose new laws on the judiciary, media and central bank have proven highly controversial.
Mr Schmitt hung on as long as he felt he had the support of the governing Fidesz party, which backed his election so strongly in June 2010.
As President, Pal Schmitt will be remembered as a Fidesz loyalist - unlike his independent-minded predecessor Laszlo Solyom, who sent back many laws to parliament.
The European Commission and Euro MPs accuse Mr Orban of limiting media freedom and the independence of the judiciary and central bank. The row has delayed financial help that Hungary desperately needs to ease its debt crisis.
Mr Schmitt served as Hungary’s ambassador to Spain in 1993-1997, and to Switzerland in 1999-2002.
He was Hungary’s fourth democratically-elected president since the collapse of communism in 1989.
He told parliament he would appeal against the decision which revoked his doctorate. He argues that only a court has the power to take such a decision.