Gyula Horn
Encyclopedia
Gyula Horn is a Hungarian
politician and the third Prime Minister of the Republic of Hungary, from 1994–1998.
He is remembered because as the last Communist Foreign Minister of Hungary, he played a major role in the demolishing of the "Iron Curtain
" for East Germans in 1989, contributing to the later unification of Germany
, and for the Bokros package
, the biggest fiscal austerity programme in post-communist Hungary, launched under his premiership, in 1995.
College of Economics and Finance in 1954. He is married, he has a daughter and a son.
(MSzMP) established by János Kádár
to lead the crushing of the 1956 Hungarian revolution against Soviet occupation and communist rule.
He worked in the Ministry of Finance from 1954 to 1959. He got a job in the Foreign Ministry in 1959, first as an official in the independent Soviet department. In the 1960s he was a diplomat in the Hungarian embassies in Bulgaria
and Yugoslavia
.
In 1969 he became an official in the foreign affairs department of the MSzMP Central Committee. By 1983 he rose to the rank of department head. In 1985 he was appointed secretary of state (deputy minister) in the Foreign Ministry. In 1989 he stepped forward to become foreign minister in the country's last communist government led by Miklós Németh
.
Horn was one of the leaders of the radical reformers who transformed the MSzMP into the Hungarian Socialist Party
in 1989, and became its chairman in 1990. As a minister he was in charge of foreign affairs when Hungary decided to open the western border (the "Iron Curtain
") to East Germans wishing to emigrate to West Germany. He is often credited with having a major part in the decision and, consequently, a role in German unification. He was first elected to Parliament in 1990 and has retained a seat ever since.
Horn led the Socialists to a huge victory in the 1994 parliamentary election
. The MSZP leaped from a paltry 33 seats in 1990 to 209, enough for an outright majority. However, Horn suspected he'd have trouble getting needed reforms past his own party's left wing. He also wanted to allay concerns both inside and outside Hungary of a former Communist party winning an absolute majority. With this in mind, he went into coalition with the liberal Alliance of Free Democrats
, giving him a two-thirds majority.
In 1995, Horn's government enacted the "Bokros package," a major austerity program. This was a difficult decision for a social democratic party, and Horn had to expend considerable effort to get most of his party to agree to it.
Although he relinquished leadership of the party after the Socialists lost the 1998 elections to Viktor Orbán
and Fidesz, he was for a long time considered to have considerable influence in the party, partly because of his personal popularity among elderly voters. In the years after 2002, he hasn't taken a very active role in politics.
Horn has received several awards for his achievements in foreign relations, among others the Charlemagne Award of the city of Aachen
in 1990.
He did not, however, get the Magyar Köztársaság Érdemrendjének Polgári Tagozata prize in 2007, suggested by Ferenc Gyurcsány
, as it was refused by Hungarian President László Sólyom
, who explicitly stated Horn's views on the 1956 revolution as the reason.
In a recent polling survey, incumbent Prime Minister Viktor Orbán
was found to be Hungary’s best premier since the political changes two decades ago. József Antall
, the leader of a conservative governing coalition from 1990 to 1993, came second while Gyula Horn (1994-98) and Gordon Bajnai
(2009-10) tied for third place.
At the end of October he joined the National Guard, the armed body of the revolution consisting soldiers, policemen, and civic freedom fighters. In December he joined the "pufajkás" brigades (in German
Steppjackenbrigade), a communist paramilitary body set up to help the invading Soviet troops restore the communist regime, and he served there until June 1957. His alleged role is controversial in some circles because such squads were accused of involvement in torturing, harassing and even executing civilians during and after the uprising.
According to him his elder brother was killed by the revolutionists during the uprising. However, his brother's death certificate states he died in a traffic accident in the countryside. His daughter was born on October 30, "The conditions were bad. The uprising released many criminals who endangered public safety. In the pufajkás squad I defended the legal order," he told German paper Die Welt
50 years later. "First, I would like to make it clear that 1956 was not a fight against communism. Even the rebels did not want to wipe it out. This is incorrectly depicted today."
Horn's precise role in crushing the revolution is unclear as the reports of his brigade have gaps; however, in 1957 he received the award "For the Worker-Peasant Power", which was only granted to those whose services earned satisfaction. When decades later, already as a prime minister he was questioned and criticized over this part of his life, he only said: "I was a pufajkás. So what?"
to Budapest. The website tried to find out if Gorbachev, a longtime friend of Horn’s would visit him in the hospital, but was unable find confirmation of this.
On 9 October 2007 Hungarian daily newspaper Népszabadság
s online version reported mistakenly that Gyula Horn died.
In 2008 Gyula Horn is no longer able to recognise his friends and is suffering from an illness similar to Alzheimer’s disease. There were also reported that although Horn has lost weight, he is in good physical condition. Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány
was the last senior party official to visit him, the daily added. On July 5, 2011, the day of Horn's 79th birthday Népszava
reported his state of health had not deteriorated, it continued to be stable. Senior Socialist Party officials presented him with a gift-parcel on the occasion of his birthday.
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
politician and the third Prime Minister of the Republic of Hungary, from 1994–1998.
He is remembered because as the last Communist Foreign Minister of Hungary, he played a major role in the demolishing of the "Iron Curtain
Iron Curtain
The concept of the Iron Curtain symbolized the ideological fighting and physical boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1989...
" for East Germans in 1989, contributing to the later unification of Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, and for the Bokros package
Lajos Bokros
Lajos András Bokros is a Hungarian economist and Member of the European Parliament for Hungary.Bokros was born in Budapest. He graduated from and holds a Ph.D. from the Budapest University of Economics....
, the biggest fiscal austerity programme in post-communist Hungary, launched under his premiership, in 1995.
His studies and his family
He was born in Budapest. Gyula Horn first studied in a lower technicians' school in Hungary. He graduated from the Rostov-on-DonRostov-on-Don
-History:The mouth of the Don River has been of great commercial and cultural importance since the ancient times. It was the site of the Greek colony Tanais, of the Genoese fort Tana, and of the Turkish fortress Azak...
College of Economics and Finance in 1954. He is married, he has a daughter and a son.
Administration and party career
In 1954 Horn joined the Hungarian communist party, then called the Hungarian Working People's Party. In November 1956 he joined the Hungarian Socialist Workers' PartyHungarian Socialist Workers' Party
The Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party was the ruling Marxist–Leninist party of Hungary between 1956 and 1989. It was organised from elements of the Hungarian Working People's Party during the 1956 Hungarian Revolution...
(MSzMP) established by János Kádár
János Kádár
János Kádár was a Hungarian communist leader and the General Secretary of the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party, presiding over the country from 1956 until his forced retirement in 1988. His thirty-two year term as General Secretary makes Kádár the longest ruler of the People's Republic of Hungary...
to lead the crushing of the 1956 Hungarian revolution against Soviet occupation and communist rule.
He worked in the Ministry of Finance from 1954 to 1959. He got a job in the Foreign Ministry in 1959, first as an official in the independent Soviet department. In the 1960s he was a diplomat in the Hungarian embassies in Bulgaria
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
and Yugoslavia
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was the Yugoslav state that existed from the abolition of the Yugoslav monarchy until it was dissolved in 1992 amid the Yugoslav Wars. It was a socialist state and a federation made up of six socialist republics: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia,...
.
In 1969 he became an official in the foreign affairs department of the MSzMP Central Committee. By 1983 he rose to the rank of department head. In 1985 he was appointed secretary of state (deputy minister) in the Foreign Ministry. In 1989 he stepped forward to become foreign minister in the country's last communist government led by Miklós Németh
Miklós Németh
Miklós Németh served as Prime Minister of Hungary from November 24, 1988 to May 23, 1990. He was one of the leaders of the Socialist Workers' Party, Hungary's Communist party, in the tumultuous years that led to the collapse of communism in Eastern and Central Europe.As Prime Minister, Németh took...
.
Horn was one of the leaders of the radical reformers who transformed the MSzMP into the Hungarian Socialist Party
Hungarian Socialist Party
The Hungarian Socialist Party describes itself as a social democratic party in Hungary. It is the partial successor of the communist Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party , which ruled Hungary between 1956 and 1989. The decision to declare the party a successor of the MSZMP was controversial, and...
in 1989, and became its chairman in 1990. As a minister he was in charge of foreign affairs when Hungary decided to open the western border (the "Iron Curtain
Iron Curtain
The concept of the Iron Curtain symbolized the ideological fighting and physical boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1989...
") to East Germans wishing to emigrate to West Germany. He is often credited with having a major part in the decision and, consequently, a role in German unification. He was first elected to Parliament in 1990 and has retained a seat ever since.
Horn led the Socialists to a huge victory in the 1994 parliamentary election
Hungarian parliamentary election, 1994
The 1994 Hungarian general election was held in two round in May 1994. It saw the return to power of the Hungarian Socialist Party, the former Communist party, under the leadership of Gyula Horn, who became Prime Minister. The Socialist achieved a remarkable revival, winning an overall majority of...
. The MSZP leaped from a paltry 33 seats in 1990 to 209, enough for an outright majority. However, Horn suspected he'd have trouble getting needed reforms past his own party's left wing. He also wanted to allay concerns both inside and outside Hungary of a former Communist party winning an absolute majority. With this in mind, he went into coalition with the liberal Alliance of Free Democrats
Alliance of Free Democrats
The Alliance of Free Democrats – Hungarian Liberal Party is a liberal party in Hungary, led since July 2010 by Viktor Szabadai . The SZDSZ is a member of the ELDR and of Liberal International...
, giving him a two-thirds majority.
In 1995, Horn's government enacted the "Bokros package," a major austerity program. This was a difficult decision for a social democratic party, and Horn had to expend considerable effort to get most of his party to agree to it.
Although he relinquished leadership of the party after the Socialists lost the 1998 elections to Viktor Orbán
Viktor Orbán
Viktor Orbán is a Hungarian populist and conservative politician and current Prime Minister of Hungary...
and Fidesz, he was for a long time considered to have considerable influence in the party, partly because of his personal popularity among elderly voters. In the years after 2002, he hasn't taken a very active role in politics.
Horn has received several awards for his achievements in foreign relations, among others the Charlemagne Award of the city of Aachen
Aachen
Aachen has historically been a spa town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Aachen was a favoured residence of Charlemagne, and the place of coronation of the Kings of Germany. Geographically, Aachen is the westernmost town of Germany, located along its borders with Belgium and the Netherlands, ...
in 1990.
He did not, however, get the Magyar Köztársaság Érdemrendjének Polgári Tagozata prize in 2007, suggested by Ferenc Gyurcsány
Ferenc Gyurcsány
Ferenc Gyurcsány is a Hungarian politician. He was the sixth Prime Minister of Hungary from 2004 to 2009.He was nominated to take that position on 25 August 2004 by the Hungarian Socialist Party , after Péter Medgyessy resigned due to a conflict with the Socialist Party's coalition partner...
, as it was refused by Hungarian President László Sólyom
László Sólyom
László Sólyom is a Hungarian political figure, lawyer, and librarian who was President of Hungary from 2005 to 2010. Previously he was President of the Constitutional Court of Hungary from 1990 to 1998....
, who explicitly stated Horn's views on the 1956 revolution as the reason.
In a recent polling survey, incumbent Prime Minister Viktor Orbán
Viktor Orbán
Viktor Orbán is a Hungarian populist and conservative politician and current Prime Minister of Hungary...
was found to be Hungary’s best premier since the political changes two decades ago. József Antall
József Antall
József Antall was the first democratically-elected Prime Minister of Hungary after the fall of Communism , teacher, librarian, historian and political figure...
, the leader of a conservative governing coalition from 1990 to 1993, came second while Gyula Horn (1994-98) and Gordon Bajnai
Gordon Bajnai
György Gordon Bajnai was the seventh Prime Minister of Hungary from 2009 to 2010. In March 2009, following Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány's announced resignation, Bajnai was nominated by the ruling MSZP party to become Hungary's next prime minister...
(2009-10) tied for third place.
His role in 1956
Although the fiscal austerity package under his rule eroded his popularity heavily, the most controversial part of his life is his role after the 1956 revolution, which started on October 23 and was crushed in the days following November 4.At the end of October he joined the National Guard, the armed body of the revolution consisting soldiers, policemen, and civic freedom fighters. In December he joined the "pufajkás" brigades (in German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
Steppjackenbrigade), a communist paramilitary body set up to help the invading Soviet troops restore the communist regime, and he served there until June 1957. His alleged role is controversial in some circles because such squads were accused of involvement in torturing, harassing and even executing civilians during and after the uprising.
According to him his elder brother was killed by the revolutionists during the uprising. However, his brother's death certificate states he died in a traffic accident in the countryside. His daughter was born on October 30, "The conditions were bad. The uprising released many criminals who endangered public safety. In the pufajkás squad I defended the legal order," he told German paper Die Welt
Die Welt
Die Welt is a German national daily newspaper published by the Axel Springer AG company.It was founded in Hamburg in 1946 by the British occupying forces, aiming to provide a "quality newspaper" modelled on The Times...
50 years later. "First, I would like to make it clear that 1956 was not a fight against communism. Even the rebels did not want to wipe it out. This is incorrectly depicted today."
Horn's precise role in crushing the revolution is unclear as the reports of his brigade have gaps; however, in 1957 he received the award "For the Worker-Peasant Power", which was only granted to those whose services earned satisfaction. When decades later, already as a prime minister he was questioned and criticized over this part of his life, he only said: "I was a pufajkás. So what?"
Illness
Gyula Horn hospitalized in August 2007 with a serious illness. Horn is being treated at Budapest’s Honvéd Hospital for a sleeping disorder, according to official reports, but other sources say he has a serious brain malfunction. According to newer informations his condition has deteriorated to the point that he is unable to leave the hospital. His condition has worsened to the point that he cannot leave the Honvéd hospital where he is being treated, and will miss out on the World Political Forum being held in Budapest, which has also seen the arrival of former Soviet leader Mikhail GorbachevMikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev is a former Soviet statesman, having served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991, and as the last head of state of the USSR, having served from 1988 until its dissolution in 1991...
to Budapest. The website tried to find out if Gorbachev, a longtime friend of Horn’s would visit him in the hospital, but was unable find confirmation of this.
On 9 October 2007 Hungarian daily newspaper Népszabadság
Népszabadság
Népszabadság is a major left-leaning Hungarian newspaper, founded in 1956 as successor of "Szabad Nép" , the central organ of the dissolved Hungarian Working People's Party...
s online version reported mistakenly that Gyula Horn died.
In 2008 Gyula Horn is no longer able to recognise his friends and is suffering from an illness similar to Alzheimer’s disease. There were also reported that although Horn has lost weight, he is in good physical condition. Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány
Ferenc Gyurcsány
Ferenc Gyurcsány is a Hungarian politician. He was the sixth Prime Minister of Hungary from 2004 to 2009.He was nominated to take that position on 25 August 2004 by the Hungarian Socialist Party , after Péter Medgyessy resigned due to a conflict with the Socialist Party's coalition partner...
was the last senior party official to visit him, the daily added. On July 5, 2011, the day of Horn's 79th birthday Népszava
Népszava
Népszava is a Social-democratic newspaper established in 1877 in Budapest by Viktor Külföldi. It was the official newspaper of the Hungarian Social Democratic Party until 1948....
reported his state of health had not deteriorated, it continued to be stable. Senior Socialist Party officials presented him with a gift-parcel on the occasion of his birthday.