New parliament
May 14, 2010
Hungary's president has named Viktor Orban of the center-right Fidesz party as the new prime minister. Orban's government will be tasked with boosting Hungary's lagging economy.
The Fidesz party won the April elections with a landslide majority, defeating the Socialist Party after eight years in power. His government has 263 of the 386 seats in parliament, a two-thirds majority that will allow the party to modify the constitution and electoral law.
Leader rebuked
At the swearing-in of the new parliament on Friday, President Laszlo Solyom warned the members against abusing the immunity they enjoy in their new positions. Solyom went on to sharply criticize the leader of the far-right party Jobbik, Gabor Vona, for wearing a uniform of the banned "Hungarian Guard" paramilitary group.
"The member who disturbed the inaugural session of the parliament with his breach of the law… makes a mockery of the parliamentary process," Solyom told news agency MTI.
Orban's administration is expected to tackle issues like overhauling the education system, corruption and poverty as well as integrating Hungary's Roma minority.
The new government is also seeking renewed negotiation with the International Monetary Fund and the European Union, to allow the country to increase its budget deficit targets. The outgoing Socialist government had negotiated a target of 3.8 percent of GDP as part of a 2008 IMF rescue package. Fidesz wants to increase that to as much as 6 percent.
smh/dpa/Reuters
Editor: Chuck Penfold