Hungary's President Pal Schmitt has resigned after being stripped of his doctorate over plagiarism.

Mr. Schmitt, who was elected to his largely ceremonial office in 2010, said he was stepping down because, in his words, “my personal issue divides my beloved nation rather than unites it.”

Last week, Budapest's Semmelweis University revoked his 1992 doctorate after finding that much of his thesis about the modern Olympic Games had been copied from works of other authors.

Mr. Schmitt won gold medals for fencing at the 1968 and 1972 Olympic Games.