Gábor Fodor (born 27 September 1962) is a Hungarian jurist, former liberal politician and a delegate to the

Hungarian Round Table Talks The Hungarian Round Table Talks () were a series of formalized, orderly and highly legalisticBartlett, p.143 discussions held in Budapest, Hungary in the summer and autumn of 1989, inspired by the Polish model, that ended in the creation of a mult ...

. He was member of the Hungarian parliament from 1990 to 2019. Later he was the representative of the Hungarian parliament in the

Council of Europe The Council of Europe (CoE; , CdE) is an international organisation with the goal of upholding human rights, democracy and the Law in Europe, rule of law in Europe. Founded in 1949, it is Europe's oldest intergovernmental organisation, represe ...

between 1991 and 1993. From 1994 to 1996 he was the Minister of Education in Hungary. Furthermore, he was the Minister of Environment and Water between 2008 and 2009. He is also a former president of the

Alliance of Free Democrats The Alliance of Free Democrats – Hungarian Liberal Party (, , SZDSZ ) was a liberal political party in Hungary. The SZDSZ was a member of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party and of Liberal International. It drew its su ...

(SZDSZ) in 2008–09 and for the Liberals in 2013–19 as well. Currently he is the CEO and founder of the Central European Political Transition Institute.

Family background

He was born on 27 September 1962 into an intellectual family in

Gyöngyös Gyöngyös is a town in Heves County, Hungary, beside of the Gyöngyös creek, under the Mátra mountain ranges. As of 2022 census, it has a population of 27,957 (see Demographics). The town is located 8.4 km from the M3 motorway and 80.8 km ...

. His father's name is Árpád Fodor (1926–2012) who was a judge and later an attorney at law. His mother's name is Klára Révfalvi (1925–2017) and she was working in the local city council. Gábor has one older brother.

Early life

He went to elementary school and high school in the town of

. He took his final exams at Berze Nagy János Grammar School in 1981. He continued his studies at the

Faculty of Law A faculty is a division within a university or college comprising one subject area or a group of related subject areas, possibly also delimited by level (e.g. undergraduate). In North America, academic divisions are sometimes titled colleges, sc ...

of the

Eötvös Loránd University Eötvös Loránd University (, ELTE, also known as ''University of Budapest'') is a Hungarian public research university based in Budapest. Founded in 1635, ELTE is one of the largest and most prestigious public higher education institutions in ...

and graduated in 1987. He was a member of the Bibó István College for Advanced Studies, along with

Viktor Orbán Viktor Mihály Orbán (; born 31 May 1963) is a Hungarian lawyer and politician who has been the 56th prime minister of Hungary since 2010, previously holding the office from 1998 to 2002. He has also led the Fidesz political party since 200 ...

Tamás Deutsch Tamás Deutsch (born 4 December 1969 in Budapest) is a male former backstroke swimmer from Hungary. Swimming career Deutsch competed in three consecutive Summer Olympics for his native country, starting in 1988 1988 was a crucial year ...

and

László Kövér László Kövér (; born 29 December 1959) is a Hungarian politician who is the current List of speakers of the National Assembly (Hungary), speaker of the National Assembly of Hungary. Under his capacity as speaker, he was also twice acting pre ...

Political career

Fidesz

He was a founding member of the

Fidesz Fidesz – Hungarian Civic Alliance (; ) is a national-conservative political party in Hungary led by Viktor Orbán. It has increasingly identified as illiberal. Originally formed in 1988 under the name of Alliance of Young Democrats () as ...

but left the party in 1993, due to his opposition to

nationalist Nationalism is an idea or movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the State (polity), state. As a movement, it presupposes the existence and tends to promote the interests of a particular nation,Anthony D. Smith, Smith, A ...

approach.

SZDSZ

Fodor joined the liberal Alliance of Free Democrats (SZDSZ) in 1993. The party cooperated with the

Hungarian Socialist Party The Hungarian Socialist Party (, ), commonly known by its acronym MSZP (), is a centre-left to left-wing social-democratic and pro-European political party in Hungary. It was founded on 7 October 1989 as a post-communist evolution and one of t ...

, which successfully defeated Fidesz in 1994, 2002 and 2006. He was Minister of Education between 1994 and 1995 and Minister of Environmental Protection and Water between 2007 and 2008. Fodor resigned after the results of the

2009 European Parliament election The 2009 European Parliament election was held in the 27 member states of the European Union (EU) between 4 and 7 June 2009. A total of 736 Member of the European Parliament, Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) were elected to represent s ...

. He was elected in an internal SZDSZ election to the post of party leader in June 2008 with 346 votes to 344. This was an unscheduled election prompted by problems around the verification of the result of the previous vote.

Hungarian Liberal Party

On 27 April 2013, he announced the formation of a new party called the

Hungarian Liberal Party Hungarian Liberal Party (, , shortened form Liberals () or MLP) is a liberal political party in Hungary. The party was founded on 27 April 2013, founded by former Alliance of Free Democrats politician and minister Gábor Fodor. As part of opp ...

(Liberals). Fodor tried to recruit young talents with no political background (For instance:

Anett Bősz Anett Bősz (born 18 December 1986) is a Hungarian liberal politician. Since November 2019, she has been the Leader of the Hungarian Liberal Party. She is a Member of Parliament since 2018. Education After graduating from the Alternative Sch ...

, Ádám Sermer) to the party. He also strengthened the party with well-known and experienced actors in public life (

Zoltán Bodnár Zoltán Bodnár (born 20 December 1958) is a Hungarian economist, banker and jurist, former CEO of the Magyar Export-Import Bank (Exim). He was also Deputy Governor of the Hungarian National Bank (MNB) from 1997 to 1998. Bodnár was nominated ...

István Szent-Iványi István Szent-Iványi (born 12 November 1958, Kecskemét, Hungary) is a Hungarian politician, Hungarian Ambassador to Slovenia, founding member of the Alliance of Free Democrats political party, and former Member of the European Parliament ...

). Their program was named as Compassionate Liberalism. The party won seats during the 2014 and 2018 parliamentary elections in Hungary. On 27 August 2019, he announced his resignation as party chairman and also quit the party. According to his statements, he did not want to take part in the unification of the opposition, which was unfolding at that time.

Private life

His first wife (between 1988 and 1993) was Ágnes Honecz jurist, art historian and later the CEO of the Equal Treatment Authority (in Hungarian: Egyenlő Bánásmód Hatóság). His second wife was Barbara Czeizel between 1995 and 2018. They have a daughter Júlia Rebeka (2000– ) and a son Jakab Dániel (1995– ).– Fodor Gábor vagyonnyilatkozata – 2003. február
/ref> His current partner is Emese Gellért.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fodor, Gabor Government ministers of Hungary Ministers of education of Hungary Fidesz politicians Alliance of Free Democrats politicians Members of the National Assembly of Hungary (1990–1994) Members of the National Assembly of Hungary (1994–1998) Members of the National Assembly of Hungary (1998–2002) Members of the National Assembly of Hungary (2002–2006) Members of the National Assembly of Hungary (2006–2010) Members of the National Assembly of Hungary (2014–2018) Living people 1962 births People from Gyöngyös Hungarian Liberal Party politicians