Protesters in Hungary are calling for the resignation of President Pal Schmitt after a university he attended said that he plagiarized parts of his doctoral dissertation.

However, in an interview aired Friday on public access television station M1, Schmitt said he would not resign.

"I have a clean conscience. 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 However, I will accept the decision of the (University) Senate that has withdrawn my doctorate.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.

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.