New Defence Minister Sworn In

Szöveg: honvedelem.hu | 2010. május 31. 6:24

The ministers of PM Viktor Orbán’s second cabinet received their credentials Saturday afternoon from President László Sólyom, then took their oath of office in Parliament. The new leader of the Ministry of Defence is Dr. Csaba Hende.

Prime Minister Viktor Orbán was sworn in Saturday morning, and in the afternoon President László Sólyom handed over the credentials of the new cabinet ministers in Sándor Palace. The head of state appointed Sándor Pintér Minister of the Interior, Csaba Hende Minister of Defence, Tibor Navracsics Minister for Public Administration and Justice, János Martonyi Minister for Foreign Affairs, György Matolcsy Minister for National Economy, Miklós Réthelyi Minister for National Resources, Tamás Fellegi Minister for National Development, Sándor Fazekas Minister for Rural Development, and Zsolt Semjén Minister without portfolio.

In his afternoon address to Parliament, PM Viktor Orbán said he expects Csaba Hende to put an end to the appearance of the defence forces in criminal reports. The members of the new cabinet signed their oath of office-documents after 2 pm.

The new defence minister

Csaba Hende was born on February 5, 1960 in Szombathely. He attended Lajos Nagy Grammar School in Szombathely where he took his final examinations in 1978. In 1983, he graduated summa cum laude from the legal faculty of Eötvös Loránd University. He began his career at lawyers’ co-operative No.2 of Szombathely. In 1984, he became a lawyer-in-training and between 1987-1991 he was working as a solicitor.

He had worked for the MoD before: between 1991-1994, as the ministry’s parliamentary secretary and head of the administrative and legal department, later as secretary to the cabinet, and today he is still a reservist officer. As he had mentioned in interviews and recent committee hearings, one of his major successes in politics was the drawing up of the new Home Defence Act in 1993, the six-party negotiations of which were led by him and Parliament approved the bill with a 99 per cent majority and only one vote against, shortly before the kick-off of the election campaign.

Between 1998-2002, Csaba Hende was working as the political state secretary of the Ministry of Justice, and since 2006, he has been MP for Szombathely and recorder of the National Assembly. As of April 27, 2009, he has been a member of the National Security Committee of the previous parliament. In the 2010 election he has won an individual mandate again in Vas county’s constituency No.2.

Csaba Hende is married, his wife is a primary school teacher and they have twin daughters, Júlia and Borbála.