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Ferenc Gyurcsány (pronounce Fer-ents Joor-chagne, with gn like in Cologne or Boulogne; and the J like the d-y in did you), born in June 4, 1961 is the Prime Minister of Hungary. He was nominated to take that position on the August 25, 2004 by his party, the Hungarian Socialist Party, after Péter Medgyessy had resigned due to a conflict with the coalition partner. Mr. Gyurcsány became Prime Minister on the September 29, 2004, with 197 yes votes, 12 no votes, and the greatest opposition party not voting in the Parliament.

Biography

Gyurcsány was born in the town of Pápa, in western Hungary, supposedly into a poor family. He studied as teacher and then, economics at the Janus Pannonius University in Pécs, graduating in 1984 and 1990 respectively. Fluent in English.

He began politics in the KISZ, the Association of Young Communists, then he became vice-president of its successor, the DEMISZ. After 1990 he didn't continue in politics, rather he grounded some companies, most important is the ALTUS Ltd.. Being an enterpreneur he became the 50th richest person in Hungary.

He returned to politics in 2002 as the head strategic advisor of Péter Medgyessy, the previous PM. He became Minister responsible for sports, youth and children in 2003. Under his office, Hungary has suffered a high-profiled athletic doping scandal during the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. He became the president of the MSZP in Győr-Moson-Sopron county in January 2004. In the summer of that same year it seemed that there were larger problems in his relationship with Medgyessy, rumours said because the PM was getting afraid of Gyurcsány as a competitor for the seat, so he resigned as minister. But in 1 week everything changed: Medgyessy resigned, and Gyurcsány became the incoming Prime Minister of Hungary.

Gyurcsány has four children: Péter (1988), Bálint (1990), Anna (1996) and Tamás (1997). He is married to Klára Dobrev.

Opinions

His side

• The coalition parties seem to support him as Prime Minister because they believe he is the one who can change the style of the communication of the government, which had been criticised a lot. They hope they can win the elections in 2006 with him, which seemed in the month of the change a tough challenge.

Opponents

• Mr. Gyurcsány has a pronounced flippant speech-style, which - as opponents think - alienates common people.
• The origin of his wealth is regularly questioned by the political right.
• A person named "Gyurcsanyi" has been mentioned by Attila Kulcsár, the main defendant in the high-profiled "K&H Equities" money laundering scandal in Hungary. The prime minister denies he had any connections with this case. Left-wing analysts say it is strange that Kulcsár mentioned people only associated with the socialists, however, he met one of the Fidesz leaders János Áder too. It is also strange that words of Kulcsár have always appeared first on the pages of opposition paper Magyar Nemzet.

Sources

• His biography
• The richest 100 of Hungary
• Humor: "Which is the real one?" (by the conservative weekly Reform)

Links

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• The Official Website of the Prime Minister of Hungary (only few facts in English yet)
  

• 1961 births
• Hungarian politicians
• Hungarian people