Eight State Secretaries to Represent Hungarian Interests in the Serbian Government

Eight state secretaries of the largest Hungarian party in Vojvodina (northern Serbia), the Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians (VMSZ), were appointed in the new Serbian government on Thursday.

Serbia held early parliamentary elections on December 17, but the government was only formed on May 2. Bálint Pásztor, president of the VMSZ and parliamentary group leader, announced on social media that the VMSZ state secretaries were among the first to be appointed by the government. The party retained its previous positions in the ministries of education, health, agriculture, infrastructure, environment, finance, and investment, and this time it replaced the Ministry of Justice with the Ministry of Economy, representing the Hungarian community in Vojvodina.

The six-member parliamentary faction of the VMSZ and its eight state secretaries are working together in the election campaign to implement the priorities agreed on with citizens,”

Pásztor stressed in his post, referring to the municipal elections on June 2.

Ferenc Vickó, an oncologist who has been state secretary in the health ministry for the last ten years, has been nominated for the post again. Before his appointment, the 65-year-old politician was head of the Oncology Institute in Vojvodina, and has also been teaching surgery at the University of Medicine in Novi Sad for many years.

There will also be no change of state secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture. Attila Juhász, an agricultural engineer, will continue to be responsible for this area. Emese Lálity Urbán will continue to represent the VMSZ in the Ministry of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure. She is an architect from Debeljača (Torontálvásárhely), and used to work in local politics. There will also be no change in the Ministry of Finance, where József Kerekes will continue as VMSZ state secretary, and Róbert Jaksa will remain state secretary for the environment.

The post of state secretary for education will be filled for the next period by Anikó Jerasz, who was the Chair of the Executive Committee of the Hungarian National Council in Vojvodina from 2014 to 2022. Igor Basnec, who previously worked at the Mayor’s Office in Novi Sad (Újvidék), will become a state secretary in the Ministry of Public Investment, while Andrea Horvát Király, who comes from the business sector, will serve as a state secretary in the Ministry of Economy.

The VMSZ President has previously said that

the state secretary posts are important because they cover areas of interest to Hungarians in Vojvodina, so that issues of importance to the community can always be on the agenda.

The politician said that a coalition agreement between the VMSZ and the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), which won the elections, would be signed soon.

Via MTI, Featured image: Wikipedia