Posted on 09/29/2004 3:18:40 PM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
BUDAPEST : Ferenc Gyurcsany, a former communist youth leader turned millionaire businessman, was elected prime minister of Hungary after parliament approved his nomination by a narrow margin.
Gyurcsany's appointment was made possible by the slim majority held in parliament by his Socialist Party and its liberal coalition partner, the Free Democrats.
He won the support of 197 of the 384 members of parliament. The conservative opposition abstained en masse, with 175 lawmakers not casting a vote. Twelve lawmakers voted against Gyurcsany.
Gyurcsany took his oath of office immediately after the vote. He was due to unveil his cabinet on Thursday, with his minister-elects scheduled to take their oaths on Monday.
The 43-year-old former sports minister assumed the nation's top job one month after the governing coalition's former leader, Peter Medgyessy, resigned after losing the support of the Free Democrats.
Medgyessy became the first Hungarian premier to resign since the country's transition to from communism to western-style democracy in 1989.
Gyurcsany has pledged to give more opportunities to the needy and called on the wealthy to contribute more money in order to improve the lives of Hungarians, who joined the European Union on May 1.
"Hungary today is free but unjust," Gyurcsany declared in parliament on Wednesday prior to his election.
"A country cannot be seen as a winner where millions see themselves as losers," he said.
Gyurcsany's rapid rise in politics began when he became chief advisor to Medgyessy in 2002 and later his sports minister.
Gyurcsany, who has been de facto premier for the past month after replacing Medgyessy, has announced he will ease the tax burden on the middle classes and increase taxes on financial institutions.
He has plans to introduce a 25 percent capital gains tax, with these profits currently not being taxed, and raise taxes on dividends from 20 to 25 percent.
Gyurcsany is aiming to raise government revenue in an effort to cut down on the public deficit, which he has pledged to reduce to under 3.0 percent by 2008 in order to stay on track for the adoption of the euro in 2010.
Hungary has failed to meet its deficit targets for three consecutive years. Earlier this month, the finance ministry raised its deficit target for year-end 2004 from 4.6 percent of Gross Domestic Product to the range of 5.0 to 5.3 percent of GDP.
Gyurcsany was overwhelmingly elected at a special Socialist congress last month to replace Medgyessy, who lost the confidence of the junior coalition party when he fired his liberal economy minister despite the party's opposition.
Gyurcsany has pledged to "deeply restructure" the Socialist party, which did badly in European parliamentary elections in June, and bring a more decisive style to government ahead of 2006 parliamentary elections.
Analysts say Gyurcsany's good communication skills could win over voters disillusioned by the Medgyessy administration, widely seen as hesitant in power, but the prime minister-elect's own wealth could prove to be a handicap.
Gyurcsany amassed a fortune estimated at 14 million euros (17 million dollars) during the country's chaotic privatisation dealings in the 1990s.
"Gyurcsany is decisive and dynamic which should play over well with voters," said political analyst Krisztian Szabados. "But a huge negative is his wealth in a country where people are by their nature envious."
"His social policies in the next two years could also be seriously compromised by the pledge to rein in spending ahead of the adoption of the euro at the end of the decade," Szabados said.
Hell! I thought they were refering to SOROS!
He needs to go back home to the rest of his anti-Christian / Anti-American pals
At least this guy is " a former communist youth leader turned millionaire businessman", vs. Soros, who is "billionair businessman turned communist"
Billionaire current Communist not elected President of the United States (I like this headline, don't you?)
So let me get this straight. He claims to be a former Communist, meaning, of course, he would have been on many "good lists" at the time of "the end of the Cold War." He is now, apparently, one of the oligarchs, while could mean that he had access to the flows of Communist Party money that was being offshored by the KGB et al during the "transition." He is now a "Socialist" a point from which only a slight shift would return him to being a full fledged Communist. And one of his first statements is veiled threat against the rich. Something's rotten in Budapest.
Some people never learn.
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