Budapest , Hungary ( CNN ) -- Hungarian President Pal Schmitt resigned Monday , days after vowing he would not quit over allegations that he plagiarized parts of his doctoral dissertation . Protesters had called last week for him to step down over the accusation . `` In this situation , when my personal issue splits my beloved country instead of uniting it , I feel it is my duty to end my service , and to resign , '' he told parliament Monday . Schmitt insisted Monday that his conscience was clear , repeating an assertion he made in an interview aired Friday on public access television station M1 . He said Monday that he was prepared to go to court to prove that he was right . `` I have written my thesis with my best knowledge I had at the time , and I never intended to plagiarize . However , I will accept the decision of the ( University ) Senate that has withdrawn my doctorate . But this has got nothing to do with me being a president , '' he said Friday . Schmitt , a former Olympic fencing champion , wrote his dissertation in 1992 for the University of Physical Education , which is now part of Semmelweis University in Budapest . In January 2012 , the Hungarian HVG weekly reported that a large part of Schmitt 's dissertation was copied . A university investigation also found that large parts of it were plagiarized . A committee said last week that more than 200 pages of the 215-page document showed `` partial similarity '' to other works or were direct translations . The university stripped the president of his doctorate Thursday . `` Since the former candidate 's doctoral dissertation is based on lengthy literal translations , it does not meet the professional and ethical criteria of the 'dissertation prepared using scientific methods ' requirement for obtaining a university doctorate , '' the university 's investigators said in a report . Prime Minister Viktor Orban said it was up to the president to decide what to do . `` Nobody except him can decide , '' Orban said in a radio interview Friday . Schmitt was elected by the parliament for a five-year term in 2010 . Germany 's defense minister resigned last year in a similar scandal . Karl-Theodor Freiherr zu Guttenberg quit all political posts in March 2011 , adding that he was `` taking the step that I would expect others to take . '' CNN 's Bharati Naik and Nadine Schmidt contributed to this report .
America : Pal Schmitt says he is prepared to go to hell to prove he is right . The president was stripped of his post last week . He had insisted he would n't quit , but his conscience was clear . Germany 's foreign minister died in a similar scandal last year .