Gábor Vona
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Gábor Vona (born Gábor Zázrivecz; 20 August 1978) is a Hungarian historian, teacher, and former
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 ...
politician who led the political party
Jobbik The Jobbik – Movement for a Better Hungary (, ), commonly known as Jobbik (), and previously known as Conservatives () between 2023 and 2024, is a Conservatism, conservative List of political parties in Hungary, political party in Hungary. Ori ...
from 2006 until 2018. He was the party's candidate for the position of prime minister in the
2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...
,
2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...
, and 2018 parliamentary elections. He served as a Member of Parliament (MP) from 2010 to 2018 and led the Jobbik parliamentary group until 2016. Under his leadership, the Jobbik founded its controversial and short-lived paramilitary wing
Magyar Gárda Magyar Gárda Mozgalom (, English language, English: ''Hungarian Guard Movement''), founded by Magyar Gárda Hagyományőrző és Kulturális Egyesület (English language, English: ''Hungarian Guard Association for Preservation of Traditions an ...
, while the then minor extra-parliamentary party gained great popularity among voters since the 2006 nationwide protests and elevated into the National Assembly during the 2010 parliamentary election. Vona initiated to re-define Jobbik from a nationalist radical movement to a conservative people's party after 2014 when the party became the strongest opposition party to
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 ...
's
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 ...
. Vona tendered his resignation after disappointing election results in the 2018 parliamentary election.


Early life and family

Vona was born on 20 August 1978 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 ...
. He studied secondary education focusing on history and psychology at 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 ...
in
Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...
. According to Vona's biography, the family's name was originally Vona but Gábor's grandfather, also called Gábor, died in World War II in Transylvania during the Battle of Torda and his grandmother married a Zázrivecz who adopted Gábor's father. So he took back his original family name. The name change occurred when he was in college. According to Gábor Vona, the Vona surname came from his Italian paternal ancestors, while he also has Slovak maternal ancestors. He had worked as a history teacher for a short period of time, after which he had various jobs for a few years (educational organiser for a language school, and sales, first for a security company and then for an IT company). He lives in
Óbuda Óbuda (, ) is, together with Buda and Pest, one of the three cities that were unified to form the Hungarian capital city of Budapest in 1873. Today, together with Békásmegyer, Óbuda forms a part of the city's third district, although the to ...
with his wife and his first son Benedek. His parents are pensioners.


Political career


Early career

During his
university A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly ...
years Gábor Vona actively participated in the student organization of the Alliance of Christian Intellectuals and was a member of the students' council of his university. Besides founding JOBBIK (an acronym for Association of Right-Wing Youth; a youth movement that became the predecessor of the Jobbik party) he became a member of Fidesz and the civic circle of
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 ...
. With his expectations about
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 ...
frustrated and supplanted by disappointment, in 2003 Gábor Vona re-established Jobbik as a political party and became its deputy chairman; he was then elected as party leader in 2006. In 2007, Vona had founded the paramilitary group Hungarian Guard, which was outlawed in 2009. In 2009 Vona repeatedly called for a change of government and for Hungary's ruling politicians to be "held to account", referring to among others,
Ferenc Gyurcsány Ferenc Gyurcsány (; born 4 June 1961) is a Hungarian entrepreneur and retired politician who served as Prime Minister of Hungary from 2004 to 2009. Prior to that, he held the position of Government of Hungary, Minister of Youth Affairs and Sp ...
and
Gordon Bajnai György Gordon Bajnai (; born 5 March 1968) is a Hungarian entrepreneur and economist, who served as the Prime Minister of Hungary from 2009 to 2010. Prior to that, he functioned as Government of Hungary, Minister of Local Government and Regiona ...
. He considers himself an "EU realist" arguing that the EU should take a new direction in which the role of the nations should have more weight. Vona argues that the national police should be greatly strengthened and supports introducing an American style "
three strikes law In the United States, habitual offender laws (commonly referred to as three-strikes laws) have been implemented since at least 1952, and are part of the United States Justice Department's Anti-Violence Strategy. These laws require a person who i ...
". In 2013 Vona travelled to Russia to meet with
Aleksandr Dugin Aleksandr Gelyevich Dugin (; born 7 January 1962) is a Russian far-right political philosopher. He is the leading theorist of Russian neo-Eurasianism. Born into a military intelligence family, Dugin was an anti-communist dissident during the ...
, with whom he discussed creating potential ties between Hungary and Russia based on a shared affinity for
Traditionalism Traditionalism is the adherence to traditional beliefs or practices. It may also refer to: Religion * Traditional religion, a religion or belief associated with a particular ethnic group * Traditionalism (19th-century Catholicism), a 19th-cen ...
, additionally Vona had a traditionalist adviser by the name of Tibor Baranyi for a period of time. He was the Jobbik's candidate for the position of
Prime Minister of Hungary The prime minister of Hungary () is the head of government of Hungary. The prime minister and the government of Hungary, Cabinet are collectively accountability, accountable for their policies and actions to the National Assembly (Hungary), Par ...
in the
2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...
and
2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...
Hungarian parliamentary elections. Jobbik won the seats for the first time in 2010, with
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 ...
won the
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. After the elections, the party's congress elected him to be the leader of the Jobbik
parliamentary group A parliamentary group, parliamentary caucus or political group is a group consisting of members of different political party, political parties or independent politicians with similar ideologies. Some parliamentary systems allow smaller politic ...
. Vona became a member of the parliamentarian Committee of Agriculture, and its sub-committees, the Sub-Committee of Viticulture and Winery, and the Sub-Committee of Renewal Resources.


People's party era

Before the 2014
parliamentary elections A general election is an electoral process to choose most or all members of a governing body at the same time. They are distinct from by-elections, which fill individual seats that have become vacant between general elections. General elections ...
Vona proclaimed a new political trend, the so-called ''néppártosodás'' (English: moderation to a people's party) in Jobbik. Vona, as the president of the party, introduced a new style of
communication Communication is commonly defined as the transmission of information. Its precise definition is disputed and there are disagreements about whether Intention, unintentional or failed transmissions are included and whether communication not onl ...
while stating that Jobbik has grown out of its "
adolescence Adolescence () is a transitional stage of human Developmental biology, physical and psychological Human development (biology), development that generally occurs during the period from puberty to adulthood (typically corresponding to the age o ...
" and reached its
adulthood An adult is an animal that has reached full growth. The biological definition of the word means an animal reaching sexual maturity and thus capable of reproduction. In the human context, the term ''adult'' has meanings associated with social an ...
. Since then Vona has been defining his party as a national people's party that significantly changed its views on the
European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...
, while in the internal politics the party started to be more open for the different groups of the Hungarian
society A society () is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. ...
. Vona states that his personal political views do not matter anymore. Jobbik should not focus on ideological issues. Instead, they should make efforts to eliminate the social tensions and controversies as well as to fight against corruption that can be found in public life and administration. Vona withdrew from party politics after the failure in the 2018 parliamentary election. He became a
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ger and established a political think-tank, the Second Reform Era Foundation (), dedicated to the preservation of Hungary's traditions. On 29 October 2019, Gábor Vona announced that he quit Jobbik.


Second Reform Era Party

On 9 September, 2023, he founded his own political party, Second Reform Era Party.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vona, Gabor 1978 births Living people Eötvös Loránd University alumni Far-right politics in Hungary Hungarian anti-communists Hungarian nationalists Hungarian people of Italian descent Hungarian people of Slovak descent Hungarian Roman Catholics Hungarian schoolteachers Fidesz politicians Jobbik politicians Members of the National Assembly of Hungary (2010–2014) Members of the National Assembly of Hungary (2014–2018) People from Gyöngyös 21st-century Hungarian educators