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Viktor Orbán (b. May 31, 1963) is a Hungarian politician, Prime Minister of Hungary between 1998 and 2002.
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Biography
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He was born in Székesfehérvár and spent his childhood in two nearby towns, Alcsútdoboz and Felcsút. In 1977 his family moved to Székesfehérvár.
He studied English language in high school, from where he graduated in 1981. In 1981 and 1982 he completed his military service, then he studied law at Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest. He graduated in 1987. In the following two years he lived in Szolnok but commuted to Budapest where he was working as a sociologist for the Management Training Institute of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food.
Viktor Orbán is married to jurist Anikó Lévai. They have five children. He is very fond of sport, especially of soccer.
Political career
Mr Orbán was a founding member of the Fidesz (Federation of Young Democrats), which was formed on 30 March 1988. On 16 June 1989, Mr Orbán gave a speech at Heroes' Square, Budapest, on the occasion of the reburial of Imre Nagy and other national martyrs of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. In his speech he demanded free elections and the withdrawal of Soviet troops. The speech brought him wide national and political acclaim. In the summer of 1989 he took part in the Opposition Roundtable negotiations.
In 1989 Mr Orbán received a scholarship from the Soros Foundation and spent a year in Oxford where he studied at Pembroke College.
In 1990 he became a member of the Hungarian parliament and leader of the Fidesz, which was transformed from a radical student movement into a conservative right-wing party under his direction. In 1995 the party changed its name to Fidesz-MPP (Federation of Young Democrats & Hungarian Civic Party). The party won the 1998 parliamentary elections (the third one since the end of Socialist era) and Mr Orbán became the youngest Prime Minister of Hungary, serving between 1998 and 2002. In March 1999 he signed the deed of accession establishing Hungary´s membership of NATO.
He was awarded the Freedom Award of the American Enterprises Institute and the New Atlantic Initiative (2001), the Polak Award (2001), the Grand Cross of the National Order of Merit (2001), the "Förderpreis Soziale Marktwirtschaft" (Price for the Social Market Economy, 2002) and the Mérite Européen prize (2004).
Nationalism and controversies
Viktor Orbán is also an outspoken nationalist. Under his mandate, Hungary enacted a "status law" extending special economic, social and cultural benefits to ethnic Hungarians in neighbouring states (Romania, Slovakia, Serbia-Montenegro, Croatia, Slovenia and Ukraine). Some of Hungary's neighbors, most notably Slovakia and Romania, objected to this law, accusing Hungary of trying to extend its jurisdiction beyond its borders. Romania acquiesced after amendments following a December 2001 agreement between Orban and Romanian prime minister Adrian Nastase; Slovakia accepted the law after further concessions made by the new government after the 2002 elections.
In a speech in the European Parliament in 2002, Orban demanded that the Czech Republic and Slovakia repeal the Benes decrees before being allowed into the European Union. These decrees were the basis for the brutal ethnic cleansing of Germans and Hungarians from these countries after World War II.
External links
- Official site (http://www.orbanviktor.hu/angol/index.html)
| Preceded by: Gyula Horn | Prime Minister of Hungary 1998–2002 | Succeeded by: Péter Medgyessy Template:End boxde:Viktor Orbán eo:ORBÁN Viktor hu:Orbán Viktor no:Viktor Orbán |