Parliament’s foreign affairs, European affairs, economic and national cohesion committees endorsed Szijjártó’s appointment after a joint hearing on Saturday.

He told the committees that Hungary’s foreign policy needs to be renewed to meet the requirements of the new world order, and the task of foreign policy will be to enforce Hungary’s economic interests.

It was announced last Friday that Prime Minister Viktor Orbán had nominated Szijjártó to succeed Tibor Navracsics, who is to become an EU commissioner.

Szijjártó was born in 1978 and graduated from the Budapest University of Economics in international relations in 2002. He joined Fidesz’s local organisation in Győr, in north-west Hungary, in 1998 and was founding chairman of the local Fidelitas, the party’s youth group, in 1999.

He has been a Fidesz MP since 2002. He was the PM’s spokesman for two years from 2010 and state secretary for foreign affairs and trade in the prime minister’s office between 2012 and 2014.

Since June 15, 2014, he has been a foreign ministry state secretary, and since June 2014, government commissioner overseeing the promotion of economic ties and coordinating bilateral relations with Russia.

Meanwhile, Enikő Győri has been relieved of her duties as foreign ministry state secretary for EU affairs. According to press reports, she will take up a new post as Hungary’s ambassador to Madrid.

Source www.hungarymatters.hu

Follow that link to sign-up for MTI’s twice-daily newsletter.