Economist Péter Róna Named Opposition’s Candidate for President

Péter Róna, a 79-year-old lawyer and economist, has been nominated by the parties of United for Hungary to succeed the current president, János Áder. Róna has accepted the opposition alliance’s offer, and was announced in a press release on Monday. However, it is more of a symbolic gesture, as the ruling parties still have a two-thirds majority in Parliament and the president is elected before the April elections.

Several names have been floating in opposition circles recently as possible candidates for head of state. In the end, however, Róna was chosen as the candidate.

Péter Róna is a Hungarian economist, lawyer, and businessman. He emigrated to the United States in 1956 at the age of 24. There, he worked in government and then in banking, and later obtained a law degree from Oxford University, alongside a degree in economic history. In 1986 he was appointed Chairman and CEO of Schroders Bank. After the fall of communism, he returned to Hungary where he became head of the First Hungarian Fund and later founded a bus company, North American Bus Industries (NABI). In 2010 he became a member of the Supervisory Board of the Hungarian National Bank.

In addition to his business work, he was a lecturer in the Department of International Law at the Faculty of Law and Political Science of Eötvös Loránd University from 2004 to 2010. In 2008, he was an advisor to the negotiating committee of the second Gyurcsány government in the negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the EU on the loan agreement. Since 2010 he has been a visiting research fellow in economic history at Blackfriars Hall, University of Oxford. He was also a member of the Economic Council of ELTE, and the University of Pécs. He has also been a member of the Supervisory Board of the Hungarian National Bank since 2010.

After 2011, he became co-chair of the board of trustees of the Ecopolis Foundation, the party foundation of centrist green LMP, and was later elected chair of the party’s program council. He left the party after the 2018 parliamentary elections.

We are aware that in today’s parliamentary conditions that Fidesz will easily vote in its own candidate, Katalin Novák. At the same time, we consider it important to present an alternative for the office of head of state,”

the opposition’s candidate for Prime Minister Péter Márki-Zay was quoted as saying in the statement of United for Hungary. “Péter Róna is committed to Christian values, social justice, and sustainable development, which are also important to the diverse political community of United for Hungary,” the statement continues.

“His rich career, his recognition, and his past public engagement would make him suitable for the office of President of the Republic, which embodies the unity of the nation,” said Márki-Zay. “That he will be replaced as president by one of Viktor Orbán’s most loyal servants says a lot about the current state of Hungary. The parties of United for Hungary support direct elections for the head of state, so if the constitution can be amended in the new term, the voters will be able to decide on the next president.”

While the presidential candidate was announced, Márki-Zay has recently called the question of who will be the opposition’s candidate for head of state, a low-ranking issue. He said that he had voted for all the names that had been put forward so far, but that he could also support the opposition by not nominating anyone at all, as they are calling for the president to be directly elected by the citizens.

Source: Telex

Featured image: Economist Péter Róna, then Chairman of the Program Council of LMP at the press conference presenting the party’s Renewing Hungary program in Budapest on March 11, 2014. Photo by Lajos Soós/MTI