A lawyer by training, she is fluent in several foreign languages and has lived in the United States, Germany and France. Novak worked as an advisor in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs during the first Orbán government. She eventually became the Chief of Staff to the Minister of Human Resources, Zoltán Balog, while simultaneously retaining a position at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. During the third Orbán government, she was appointed as State Secretary for Family and Youth Affairs.
Novak traveled to different conferences and events in her new position and forged contacts among the global Christian Right. This led to her involvement with the Political Network of Values (PNfV) where she served as president.
These connections enabled Novak to help organize the first biannual Budapest Demographic Summit, which gave Hungary its first real platform to promote its “family values'' policies to an international audience. Since then the conference has featured prominent right-wing political figures including Georgia Meloni, Tony Abbot, and former US Vice President Mike Pence.
Novak was nominated as the president of Hungary in 2022. She traveled abroad extensively as president, meeting with Republican Presidential candidates Ron DeSantis and Donald Trump ahead of the 2024 Republican primaries.
In 2023 she pardoned several criminals ahead of a visit by Pope Francis, which drew controversy since one of the recipients was György Budaházy, a convicted far-right terrorist associated with the country’s neonazi movement. However, it was in 2024 that Novak was forced to resign after it was discovered that the pardons also included Endre Kónya, who had been convicted of covering up molestation of children at an orphanage.
