Hungarian presidential election, 2010

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Hungarian presidential election, 2010
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Nominee Pál Schmitt András Balogh
Party Fidesz MSZP
Electoral vote 263 59
President before election

László Sólyom
Independent

Elected President

Pál Schmitt
Fidesz

Hungary
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This article is part of a series on the
politics and government of
Hungary
Foreign relations

An indirect presidential election was held in Hungary on 29 June 2010. [1] The Prime Minister's nominee Pál Schmitt was elected by an absolute majority.

Hungary Country in Central Europe

Hungary is a country in Central Europe. Spanning 93,030 square kilometres (35,920 sq mi) in the Carpathian Basin, it borders Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Austria to the northwest, Romania to the east, Serbia to the south, Croatia to the southwest, and Slovenia to the west. With about 10 million inhabitants, Hungary is a medium-sized member state of the European Union. The official language is Hungarian, which is the most widely spoken Uralic language in the world. Hungary's capital and largest city is Budapest. Other major urban areas include Debrecen, Szeged, Miskolc, Pécs and Győr.

Pál Schmitt President of Hungary, olympic champion

Pál Schmitt is a Hungarian Olympic fencer and politician who served as President of Hungary from 2010 to 2012.

Contents

Background

Following the Hungarian parliamentary election, 2010, Fidesz came out with an overwhelming majority of seats. With a two-thirds majority requirement needed to elect the president, Fidesz was expected to win since it already had the necessary numbers.

Candidates

Nominations were due by midday of 25 June 2010; the Hungarian Socialist Party nominated university lecturer and Hungarian ambassador to Thailand András Balogh on 6 June 2010. [2] [3] Fidesz nominated speaker of parliament Pál Schmitt on 23 June 2010. Jobbik intended to nominate Krisztina Morvai, [4] and Politics Can Be Different wished to nominate incumbent President László Sólyom, but neither had enough MPs to respectively do so. [5] [6]

Hungarian Socialist Party political party in Hungary

The Hungarian Socialist Party, known mostly by its acronym MSZP, is a social-democratic political party in Hungary.

Thailand Constitutional monarchy in Southeast Asia

Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and formerly known as Siam, is a country at the centre of the Southeast Asian Indochinese peninsula composed of 76 provinces. At 513,120 km2 (198,120 sq mi) and over 68 million people, Thailand is the world's 50th largest country by total area and the 21st-most-populous country. The capital and largest city is Bangkok, a special administrative area. Thailand is bordered to the north by Myanmar and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the west by the Andaman Sea and the southern extremity of Myanmar. Its maritime boundaries include Vietnam in the Gulf of Thailand to the southeast, and Indonesia and India on the Andaman Sea to the southwest. Although nominally a constitutional monarchy and parliamentary democracy, the most recent coup in 2014 established a de facto military dictatorship.

András Balogh Hungarian historian and diplomat

András Balogh is a Hungarian historian and diplomat, a former ambassador to Thailand. His party, the Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP) nominated him to the position of President of Hungary in 2010. During a parliamental election the Fidesz-Christian Democratic People's Party's candidate Pál Schmitt was elected by an overwhelming majority.

Once elected, the new president would take office on 5 August 2010. [7]

Most Hungarians said they didn't think the President should be a member of any party. Forty-eight percent of respondents said that the president's independence from the government is among the most important considerations for the office, though 46 percent said it is also important that the president be able to work well with the prime minister.

However, polling suggested that should the election be a popular one, Schmitt would get 32 percent of the vote, outgoing President László Sólyom would get 24 percent, Socialist Party nominee András Balogh would get 14 percent and Jobbik's Krisztina Morvai would get 6 percent. Twenty-four percent said they would not vote for any of the candidates or declined to answer the question. [8]

László Sólyom politician and former President of Hungary

László Sólyom is a Hungarian political figure, lawyer, and librarian who was President of Hungary from 2005 until 2010. Previously he was president of the Constitutional Court of Hungary from 1990 to 1998.

Results

Hungarian Presidential elections, 2010 [9]
Candidate Nominating Party Votes %
Pál Schmitt Fidesz 263 68.1
András Balogh Hungarian Socialist Party 59 15.3
Did not vote [note 1] 20 5.2
Invalid votes [note 2] 44 11.4
Total votes 366 94.8
Total seats 386 100.00
  1. ↑ 20 MPs opted for not registering and did not pick up their ballots
  2. ↑ 44 empty ballots cast with neither candidate supported

Reactions

Several Fidesz MP's expressed concern over the electoral outcome saying that though Schmitt was "a charmer and very capable person," they didn't feel he was right for the job because any mistake he may make would reflect poorly on Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who had selected him. [10]

Viktor Orbán Hungarian politician, chairman of Fidesz

Viktor Mihály Orbán is a Hungarian politician serving as Prime Minister of Hungary since 2010. He also served as Prime Minister from 1998 to 2002. He is the present leader of the national conservative Fidesz party, a post he has held since 2003 and, previously, from 1993 to 2000.

The President of the European Parliament Jerzy Buzek welcomed the election of Schmitt. [11]

Related Research Articles

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Ferenc Mádl was a Hungarian legal scholar, professor and politician, who served as the second President of the third Republic of Hungary, between 4 August 2000 and 5 August 2005. Prior to that he had been minister without portfolio between 1990 and 1993 then Minister of Education between 1993 and 1994 in the conservative cabinets of József Antall and Péter Boross. Mádl ran unsuccessfully for the position of President of Hungary in 1995, defeated by Árpád Göncz. Five years later he was elected President as the candidate of the governing conservative coalition.

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László Kövér is a Hungarian politician and the current Speaker of the National Assembly of Hungary. He was the acting President of Hungary from 2 April 2012 to 10 May 2012, after the resignation of Pál Schmitt.

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2005 Hungarian presidential election

An indirect presidential election was held in Hungary on 6-7 June 2005. The main opposition party Fidesz's nominee, the former President of the Constitutional Court László Sólyom was elected President of Hungary.

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An early indirect presidential election was held in Hungary on 2 May 2012, following the resignation of Pál Schmitt as President of Hungary on 2 April 2012. János Áder was elected President with an absolute majority.

János Fónagy Hungarian jurist, economist and politician

Dr. János Vilmos Fónagy is a Hungarian jurist, economist and politician, who served as Minister of Transport and Water Management between 2000 and 2002. He was Parliamentary State Secretary for National Development between 2 June 2010 and 17 May 2018.

Dr. Péter Polt is a Hungarian jurist, Chief Prosecutor of Hungary from 2000 to 2006 and since 2010.

2014 Hungarian parliamentary election

The 2014 Hungarian parliamentary election took place on 6 April 2014. This parliamentary election was the 7th since the 1990 first multi-party election. The result was a victory for the Fidesz–KDNP alliance, preserving its two-thirds majority, with Viktor Orbán remaining Prime Minister. It was the first election under the new Constitution of Hungary which came into force on 1 January 2012. The new electoral law also entered into force that day. For the first time since Hungary's transition to democracy, the election had a single round. The voters elected 199 MPs instead of the previous 386 lawmakers.

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The following lists events that happened during 2018 in Hungary.

References

  1. ↑ "Hungarian ruling party proposes parliament elect president on June 29 - People's Daily Online". English.people.com.cn. 2010-06-07. Retrieved 2011-08-05.
  2. ↑ "Hungary's parliament to elect president on June 29 - People's Daily Online". English.people.com.cn. 2010-06-10. Retrieved 2011-08-05.
  3. ↑ MTI (2010-06-07). "Socialists hold congress, picks nominee for state president". Politics.hu. Retrieved 2011-08-05.
  4. ↑ Around, Hungary (2009-12-18). "Jobbik names Vona as PM candidate, Morvai for state president". Politics.hu. Retrieved 2011-08-05.
  5. ↑ "The Budapest Times - Hungary's leading English Language source for daily news". Archived from the original on July 20, 2011. Retrieved July 1, 2010.. 2010-06-15.
  6. ↑ Around, Hungary (2010-06-28). "Greens fail in drive to re-nominate state president". Politics.hu. Retrieved 2011-08-05.
  7. ↑ "Hungarian PM names party-mate as presidential choice - People's Daily Online". English.people.com.cn. 2010-06-24. Retrieved 2011-08-05.
  8. ↑ MTI (2010-06-28). "Fidesz nominee for president tops poll". Politics.hu. Retrieved 2011-08-05.
  9. ↑ MTI (2010-06-30). "Pal Schmitt elected new president of Hungary". Politics.hu. Retrieved 2011-08-05.
  10. ↑ http://www.politics.hu/20100630/fidesz-mps-express-concerns-over-schmitts-election-as-president >> Fidesz MPs express concerns over Schmitt's election as president
  11. ↑ "Jerzy Buzek - Buzek on the election of the new Hungarian President Pál Schmitt". Europarl.europa.eu. 2010-06-29. Archived from the original on 2012-07-31. Retrieved 2011-08-05.
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