Márton Gyöngyösi is a Hungarian economist and former politician, who served as the leader of 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 ...
between 2023 and 2025. He was a Member of Parliament from 2010 to 2019. He was the leader of the Jobbik's parliamentary group from 2018 to 2019. He was elected a
Member of the European Parliament
A member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been Election, elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament.
When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the European Coal and S ...
(MEP) in the
2019 European Parliament election
The 2019 European Parliament election was held in the European Union (EU) between 23 and 26 May 2019. It was the ninth parliamentary election since the first direct elections in 1979. A total of 751 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) we ...
, as a result he resigned from his seat in the national parliament.
Early life
As a child of Hungarian foreign trade experts, Márton Gyöngyösi spent the most of his childhood in
Egypt
Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...
,
Iraq
Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...
,
Afghanistan
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...
and
India
India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
Dublin
Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...
Nuremberg
Nuremberg (, ; ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the Franconia#Towns and cities, largest city in Franconia, the List of cities in Bavaria by population, second-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Bav ...
as an exchange student. In
Ireland
Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...
he participated in the professional chartered accountancy examinations (ACA).
In December 2004 he moved back to
Hungary
Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...
and started working as a tax consultant in the
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 ...
office of
KPMG
KPMG is a multinational professional services network, based in London, United Kingdom. As one of the Big Four accounting firms, along with Ernst & Young (EY), Deloitte, and PwC. KPMG is a network of firms in 145 countries with 275,288 emplo ...
. Between 2007 and 2010 he worked as an expert at Ernst&Young.
He speaks Hungarian, English, German and Russian.
Political career
Gyöngyösi has been participating in the activity of Jobbik since the autumn of 2006. Within a short time, he has become an advisor to the president of the party, Gábor Vona. On the 2010 elections, he was nominated as a candidate for foreign minister of a future Jobbik government.
From 2003 through 2010, he regularly published articles of political and public interest in Hungarian daily
Magyar Nemzet
''Magyar Nemzet'' ('', '') is a major Hungarian newspaper published in Hungary, and styled itself as "close to the current Hungarian government led by Viktor Orbán" as of 2019.
History and profile
''Magyar Nemzet'', a moderate conservative d ...
as well as
business
Business is the practice of making one's living or making money by producing or Trade, buying and selling Product (business), products (such as goods and Service (economics), services). It is also "any activity or enterprise entered into for ...
and
economy
An economy is an area of the Production (economics), production, Distribution (economics), distribution and trade, as well as Consumption (economics), consumption of Goods (economics), goods and Service (economics), services. In general, it is ...
related publications in business daily Napi Gazdaság. Gyöngyösi was elected MP via the party's national list in the 2010 and 2014 parliamentary elections. Between 2010 and 2018 he served as the vice-chair of the Foreign Committee of the Hungarian National Assembly. He was the leader of the Jobbik's parliamentary group from 2018 to 2019.
In 2019, he was nominated as the lead candidate of Jobbik's
European Parliament
The European Parliament (EP) is one of the two legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it ...
list. Jobbik received 6.34% of the vote in the
European Parliament election
Elections to the European Parliament take place every five years by universal adult suffrage; with more than 400 million people eligible to vote, they are the second largest democratic elections in the world after India's.
Until 2019, 751 ...
, a serious throwback from the 14.67% they received at the last European election in 2014. Despite the setback, the party was able to secure 1 mandate, so that Gyöngyösi was elected to the European Parliament.
Gyöngyösi is member of Committee on Foreign Affairs and the Delegation to the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly and he is the substitute of
Committee on International Trade The Committee on International Trade (INTA) is a committee of the European Parliament. Its current chair, elected on 10 July 2019, is Bernd Lange.Subcommittee on Human Rights and Delegation for relations with the United States.
Following internal disputes, Gyöngyösi was elected leader of the Jobbik on 2 July 2022, acquiring 68 percent of the vote. He defeated István Földi, a confidant of former party president
Péter Jakab
Péter Jakab (born 16 August 1980) is a Hungarian politician and member of the National Assembly. He served as president of the right-wing Jobbik between January 2020 and June 2022. He had been the parliamentary group leader of Jobbik from July ...
. Gyöngyösi told "in Hungary, there is no real national and real conservative party on the political spectrum", he wants to lead and build one. He added "my task is to shake up the opposition voters, to shake up the opposition, to show with the leadership of Jobbik that it is indeed possible to offer an alternative to this rbángovernment".
Following Jobbik's poor result in the
2024 European Parliament election
The 2024 European Parliament election was held in the European Union (EU) between 6 and 9 June 2024. It was the tenth Elections to the European Parliament, parliamentary election since the 1979 European Parliament election, first direct electio ...
, he announced that he will not run for the party leadership again. In October 2024, he announced his retirement from politics.
International politics
Gyöngyösi has been a key figure in the transformation of Jobbik to a mainstream party. As the politician of Jobbik in charge of foreign affairs he was the initiator of the Wage Union European Citizens’ Initiative. According to Gyöngyösi the European Union should give more powers to its member states, but close cooperation is necessary.
According to
Political Capital
Political capital (PC) refers to an individual's ability to influence political decisions. Political capital can be understood as a metaphor used in political theory to conceptualize the accumulation of resources and power built through relatio ...
, Márton Gyöngyösi was found to be the most hawkish against
Russia
Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...
, regularly condemning authoritarian actions with his votes in
Russia
Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...
,
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
,
Venezuela
Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...
,
Bolivia
Bolivia, officially the Plurinational State of Bolivia, is a landlocked country located in central South America. The country features diverse geography, including vast Amazonian plains, tropical lowlands, mountains, the Gran Chaco Province, w ...
or
Nicaragua
Nicaragua, officially the Republic of Nicaragua, is the geographically largest Sovereign state, country in Central America, comprising . With a population of 7,142,529 as of 2024, it is the third-most populous country in Central America aft ...
– among others.
In December 2022 in the interview given to
Ukrainska Pravda
''Ukrainska Pravda'' is a Ukrainian socio-political online media outlet founded by Heorhii Gongadze in April 2000. After Gongadze’s death in September 2000, the editorial team was led by co-founder Olena Prytula, who remained the editor-in ...
Gyöngyösi explained his position on Ukraine and on the
Russian invasion of Ukraine
On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...
.
Inter-parliamentary relations
On March 26, 2007 the Hungarian Parliament established the Hungary-Azerbaijan interparliamentary friendship group. Márton Gyöngyösi was the chairman of this Group.
Personal life
Gyöngyösi is married. His wife is Ágnes Gyöngyösiné Cserhalmi, jurist and economist. They have a son.
Controversies
In 2012, as a junior MP in the Parliament, Gyöngyösi suggested that there should be a list of Jews in the National Assembly. Later he apologised, and told that his statement was “a bad sentence, it was a not-well-thought-through sentence, it was a disastrous sentence.”
Gyöngyösi has been accused of
antisemitism
Antisemitism or Jew-hatred is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Whether antisemitism is considered a form of racism depends on the school of thought. Antisemi ...
a couple other times. On a separate occasion he claimed
Israel
Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...
to run on a "Nazi system, based on racial hatred", and declared in an interview when talking about the numbers of
Hungarian Jews
The history of the Jews in Hungary dates back to at least the Kingdom of Hungary, with some records even predating the Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin in 895 CE by over 600 years. Written sources prove that Jewish communities lived ...
murdered during the
Holocaust
The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...