New Government Advisory Board Formed

The Strategic Advisory Board (Stratégiai Tanácsadó Testület), a permanent body attached to the government, was established on Monday. Its purpose is to provide analysis and advice to the government and the prime minister through a strategic review of specific areas of governance, with a particular focus on the resilience of government operations to sovereignty, social, economic, security, cultural and other risks.

It is chaired by Balázs Orbán, the prime minister’s political director.

The tasks related to the functioning of the board are carried out by the Secretariat of the Prime Minister’s Office, headed by the prime minister’s political director. The other members of the board were invited by Viktor Orbán yesterday.

The advisory body will be operational from March 14, 2024, with the following staff:

• György Bakondi: Chief Advisor to the Prime Minister on Homeland Security; founding Director General of the National Directorate General for Disaster Management of the Ministry of Interior between 2000 and 2002; Director General between 2010 and 2015.
• Árpád Kovács: Engineer, economist, President of the State Audit Office of Hungary (SAO) from 1997 to 2009; from 2004 to 2007, President of the Governing Board of International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI), the world organization of supreme audit institutions; former President of the Fiscal Council.
• József Kovács: Between 1985 and 2012, he held officer and commanding officer positions in the Hungarian Defense Forces; between 2012 and 2018, he was Director General of the Military National Security Service; since 2018, he has been Secretary of State for National Information.
• Miklós Maróth: Adviser to the prime minister on science policy issues; full member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA); Vice President of MTA from 2008 to 2014; Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at Pázmány Péter Catholic University between 1992 and 1999.
• Károly Papp: State Secretary for Civil National Security Services; from 2013 to 2018 Police Commissioner; from 2022 State Secretary for Civil National Security Services in the Prime Minister’s Office.
• István Stumpf: constitutional lawyer; political scientist; university professor; Minister in charge of the Prime Minister’s Office between 1998 and 2002; constitutional judge between 2010 and 2019; Government Commissioner for the coordination of the change of higher education model from 2021 to 2022.

Via MTI; Featured image via Facebook/Orbán Balázs