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PMO Head Gulyás to Take Over Outgoing Family Minister Novák’s Duties

Hungary Today 2022.01.03.

The head of the prime minister’s office will take over the duties of the outgoing minister in charge of family affairs after the former minister, Katalin Novák, was nominated for the presidency. Besides family affairs, Gergely Gulyás will then oversee social and youth matters too.

Katalin Novák, aged 44, was named by Viktor Orbán at the Prime Minister’s end-of-year press conference as Fidesz’s next candidate for President of Hungary. One day after the announcement, Novák revealed that she would resign of his ministership in order to be able to focus on her next duty.

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Although Orbán himself said that he wanted to find her successor quickly, this was promptly taken off the agenda and the PMO head was named to take over Novák’s duties until the elections, including the oversight of her two state secretaries and entire staff.

This means that besides family affairs, Gergely Gulyás would decide on social and pension politics, as well as youth affairs. For example, he would be the one to decide on the issue of single parent adoption (after Fidesz-KDNP controversially changed the relevant law, likely in order to make adoption for same-sex couples more difficult, if not impossible).

Fact

In a recent interview, Gulyás himself claimed that Katalin Novák was only the number two choice for the presidency, as Orbán had first proposed the post for incumbent House Speaker László Kövér, who recently made headlines for a controversial statement, and reportedly rejected the offer once again.

While the former family minister has three children, her successor (in terms of overseeing the same tasks), Gulyás (40) is still unmarried and has no children.

featured image: Novák and Gulyás in the Parliament; via Noémi Bruzák/MTI


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