Hungary's new cabinet to be sworn in

Ministers in the Cabinet of newly elected Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany were set to be sworn in today as part of his push to raise living standards and apply “truly Social Democratic” values to Hungary.

Gyurcsany – elected last week in a 197-12 vote – has named seven new ministers and kept 10 of those who served during the two years in office of Gyurcsany’s predecessor, Peter Medgyessy.

Among those staying are Finance Minister Tibor Draskovics, Defence Minister Ferenc Juhasz and Culture Minister Istvan Hiller.

Hiller is considered the leading candidate to supplant Laszlo Kovacs as Socialist Party chairman next week, a designation that could lead him to step down as minister.

Kovacs, who will become the European Union’s commissioner for energy affairs, will stay on as foreign minister until the end of October. He will be replaced then by Ferenc Somogyi, a deputy ambassador to the United Nations in the 1980s and recently a phone company executive.

The man symbolically credited with causing Medgyessy’s demise will not be part of the new Cabinet. Istvan Csillag, whose attempted dismissal by Medgyessy backfired, resigned last week to “spare the new government of unnecessary conflicts.”

Janos Koka – founder of a local telecommunications firm and, like Gyurcsany, one of Hungary’s richest businessmen – will step in for Csillag as minister of economics and transportation.

Others new to their posts are Justice Minister Jozsef Petretei – a legal scholar from southern Hungary – and two ministers without portfolio: Etele Barath, co-ordinating EU affairs, and Istvan Kolber, overseeing regional development.

Nineteen months before the next parliamentary elections and trailing the centre-right opposition by some 12-15 points in the polls, Gyurcsany, 43, says his government will represent “true Social Democratic” values.

The Socialist-led coalition, which also includes the Alliance of Free Democrats, ousted Medgyessy in late August, frustrated by his lack of leadership and direction for government policies.

A property and manufacturing tycoon who was a communist youth leader in the 1980s, Gyurcsany vowed his Cabinet would be much more decisive and establish a markedly left-wing tone.

“I envision a left wing which has the courage to be outraged by social injustices and has the strength to do something about them,” Gyurcsany said in an interview in the daily newspaper Nepszabadsag. “Our government stands by the principle there should be more responsibility taken above and more opportunities below.”

Among the first policies he announced were the introduction of capital gains tax, higher taxes for banks and lower income taxes benefiting most those earning near the average monthly wage of 142,300 forints (€550).

Thirteen members of Gyurcsany’s Cabinet are Socialists – including the only two women – while four were designated by the Free Democrats.

Peter Kiss, whom Gyurcsany defeated to gain the Socialists’ nomination, will continue to direct the Prime Minister’s Office. The only significant structural change is the elimination of the Youth and Sports Ministry, which Gyurcsany led before taking over as head of government.

Attila Abraham, who won Olympic gold, silver and bronze medals in kayak, will handle sport matters as a state secretary at the Prime Minister’s Office.

The thrice-married Gyurcsany, who left politics during Hungary’s transition to democracy in 1990 and returned in 2002 as a key adviser to Medgyessy, has four children.