New Government – Orban Invokes Spirit Of Lincoln

Budapest, June 6 (MTI) – The goal of the cabinet being formed today is to run a people’s government, Viktor Orban, the premier, said in parliament.

Presenting his new cabinet, he said a people’s government was about more than “sticking to the rules of democracy”. It is based on the classic idea of Lincoln’s: “Of the people, by the people, for the people.”

Hungary’s government must lead a unified and strong nation on the path that it embarked upon four years ago, he said.

Introducing Mihaly Varga, the national economy minister, Orban said he expected Varga to build a labour-based economy with the goal of full employment in sight. In light of the European Central Bank’s “historic” rate decision on Thursday, he had also asked Varga to prepare Hungary accordingly.

Orban said he had asked the new minister of foreign and external economic affairs, Tibor Navracsics, to pursue a policy which binds every major foreign power’s interests to a successful Hungary and which adds to Hungary’s weight. Such a strategy demands bravura, he added.

He said he had asked Laszlo Trocsanyi, the new justice minister, to defend the country’s constitutional identity in the international area, while in Hungary he should contribute to restoring “the wavering public trust” in the justice system.

Orban said he wanted Sandor Pinter, the interior minister to carry on making Hungary a safe place to live in. “Be tough, unbending and just,” he told him, adding that the rights of criminals should never be put above those of law enforcement officers or victims.

Aiding the country’s reindustrialisation is among the key tasks entrusted to Miklos Sesztak, the new development minister, Orban said.

The prime minister asked the minister of human resources, Zoltan Balog, to manage energy affairs in such a way that ultimately strengthens families and turns around demographic trends in a “modern nation-saving form”.