Gordon Bajnai

Gordon Bajnai   ( economist,  politician)
Born	György Gordon Bajnai 1968-03-05  Szeged,  Hungary
Nationality	Hungary
Alma mater	Budapest University of Economic Sciences
Children	•  Zsófia Ágnes Katalin •  András Miklós
Spouse	Andrea Izsák
Member of	European Council on Foreign Relations
Party	Together
Former Prime Minister of Hungary who was selected to lead ultimately failed coalition against PM Viktor Orbán. Attended Bilderberg/2014  Prime Minister of Hungary In office 14 April 2009 - 29 May 2010 Succeeded by Viktor Orbán Attended the 2014 Bilderberg  Hungary/Minister of National Development and Economy In office 15 May 2008 - 14 April 2009  Hungary/Minister of Local Government and Regional Development In office 1 July 2007 - 14 May 2008  Hungary/Member of the National Assembly  In office 6 May 2014 - 26 May 2014

György Gordon Bajnai is a Hungarian economist who was a "technocrat" Prime Minister of Hungary from 2009 to 2010, placed there to implement austerity. Soon returning to politics, Bajnai established Together 2014, an umbrella organization of left-wing and liberal political movements and NGOs in October 2012, as an coalition against Viktor Orbán, who was unwanted by the liberal section of the supranational deep state. After failing in several elections, Bajnai was gradually marginalized in the upcoming months. He retired from politics after the 2014 parliamentary and European Parliament elections, then attended the 2014 Bilderberg meeting.

Studies and student politics

Bajnai graduated from the Budapest University of Economic Sciences (now Corvinus University) International Relations Department in 1991. Bajnai was very active in student-politics. In 1987, he organized a boycott of the University of Economics' canteen, and was the first chairman of the Independent Student Council.

Finacial career

Bajnai took a job at Creditum Financial Consulting Ltd. In 1993, he undertook an internship at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in London. Later he also worked for Eurocorp International Finance Ltd. Between 1995 and 2000, Bajnai was the managing director of CA IB Securities Co., and was the Deputy Chief Executive Officer (at the same time when András Simor, later head of National Bank of Hungary, was the head of the company). Bajnai was leading several IPOs, as well as some of the major M&A transactions of this period.

From 2000 to 2005, Bajnai was Chairman of the conglomerate Wallis Rt. He was strongly criticized for his actions and decisions in this position. After the takeover and subsequent liquidation of the Hajdú-Bét Rt. poultry processing plant by Wallis Rt., Bajnai is said not to have done enough to prevent the bankruptcy. The company, which has since gone bankrupt, had 5.5 billion forints of debt outstanding with its supplier. Numerous family farms that supplied the Hajdú-Bét company with poultry fell into severe financial and existential hardships. In the course of the bankruptcy, nine farmers committed suicide. It is also viewed critically that Cypriot off-shore companies were involved both in the takeover of Hajdú-Bét by Wallis and in the bankruptcy. Bajnai won all the lawsuits against media-outlets for "false accusations".

In 2005, he was Chairman of Budapest Airport (on behalf of BAA), and member of the Supervisory Committee at Zwack Inc. He was a member of the Corvinus University of Budapest Economic Council. He resigned all of his company posts and board-membershipswhen he entered the government as government commissioner.

Government career

Bajnai first received a government post in 2006. On 1 July, Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány's called on him to be the Government Commissioner for Development Policy. In this position, he was overseeing the National Development Agency, that controls EU funds to Hungary.

He became minister in July 2007, in the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development. After SZDSZ left the coalition government, in May 2008, he took over the newly formed Ministry of National Development and Economy.

In March 2009, Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány resigned, announcing that he would hand over his position to a new premier with a higher support of the parties of the Hungarian Parliament. Bajnai was selected as new prime minister by majority of the ruling Hungarian Socialist Party's stakeholders, who also assured him of their support of austerity measures. Securing the backing of both parties, Bajnai became prime minister on 14 April 2009.

During his first speech as head of government, he promises to take drastic measures to stop the negative spiral in which the Hungarian economy is being dragged and to ease the burden of the global economic crisis, specifying that he would remain in power as long as he had a solid parliamentary majority to support his program of budgetary rigor. To access the loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), he sharply reduced expenses, mainly those of a social nature, which earned him the enmity of certain sectors of the party, who saw the party cutting itself off from its electoral base.

His first visit abroad was in Brussels, where he debuted as Prime Minister. He had discussions with Jose Manuel Durao Barroso, President of the European Commission, and with Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, Secretary-General of NATO.

Between 20–24 September, Bajnai made an official visit to the USA, where he met President Barack Obama, the UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon, he attended the Climate Conference of the UN. He visited The Wall Street Journal's editorial office. He had talks with George Soros, Charles Gati, and major U.S. financiers and investors.

Hungary sent more troops to Afghanistan in line with then-current US strategy to enhance involvement there, Bajnai announced at a meeting with US Vice President Joe Biden in the White House on 4 December 2009.

Color revolution activities

A few months after retiring from government, he founded the Patriotism and Progress Public Policy Foundation.

During the Autumn of 2011 he was chosen as adjunct professor at School of International and Public Affairs Columbia University in New York, and held lectures and speeches at Rutgers University in New Jersey, Johns Hopkins University in Washington D.C., Princeton University, Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania.

Bajnai announced his return to politics on 23 October 2012, during the anti-government demonstration of the One Million for Press Freedom (Milla). On the protest, he called for an anti-Orbán coalition so as to form a supermajority in Parliament with the help of which the changes done by Orbán's ruling party, Fidesz could be undone, and proclaimed his support for such a "cooperation between hopeful left-wingers, disappointed rightwingers, politically abandoned free-thinkers and committed Greens" that his organization along with two other civilian body named Together 2014 as a reference to the date of the next general election in Hungary.

In December 2012, Bajnai announced his intention to be a parliamentarian candidate in the 2014 general election. On 14 January 2014, five opposition parties entered into an electoral coalition and formed Unity alliance. Bajnai had to gave up his candidacy of Prime Ministership, in favor of Attila Mesterházy, the candidate of MSZP, the largest party of this coalition. Unity, under the leadership of Mesterházy suffered a heavy defeat in the April election, nevertheless Bajnai was elected to the National Assembly from the second place of the alliance's joint list. Bajnai resigned from his parliamentary seat on 26 May 2014, and gradually withdrawn himself from domestic politics.

Later activities

In September 2014, Bajnai was named Group Chief Operating Officer of the Paris-based Meridiam infrastructure, a leading global investment fund. Commentators on both the left and right political wing agreed that Bajnai was quitting politics with that step.

 

Events Participated in

Event	Start	End	Location(s)	Description
Bilderberg/2014	29 May 2014	1 June 2014	Denmark Copenhagen Marriott Hotel	The 62nd Bilderberg, with 136 guests, held in Copenhagen
Bratislava Global Security Forum/2022				"Building Resilience in a Divided World"

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