Steven N.
The National Assembly’s spring session will begin on February 21, and the successor to President János Áder will be elected by the body on March 10, said Gergely Gulyás, Chief of Staff of the Prime Minister’s Office (pictured), responding to a question in the first Government Information briefing of the year.
This means that MPs will meet right in the middle of the 50-day campaign period beginning on February 12 and concluding at 7:00pm on election day, April 3.
Gulyás stated that the successor to President János Áder, who is term-limited after two terms as Hungary’s head of state, will be elected on March 10, the last day of the parliamentary session. Hungary’s new head of state will then convene the inaugural meeting of the next parliamentary session following the April 3 elections.
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán announced in December that Fidesz would be nominating Katalin Novák, until recently Minister without Portfolio for Family Issues, as its nominee for head of state.
As the ruling Fidesz-KDNP coalition currently has a two-thirds majority in Parliament, Novák’s election by secret ballot in the first round appears a near certainty. Despite this, opposition parties may still decide to nominate their own candidate for the post as well.
[HVG]
