Judit Varga will be number one on Fidesz's electoral list for the European Parliament next year

Minister of Justice Judit Varga will head the Fidesz-KDNP electoral list for the European Parliament in 2024, pro-government Hungarian daily Magyar Nemzet reports. The paper, citing sources close to the government, writes that Judit Varga will take an active role in the European campaign and will work to strengthen conservative forces. According to the paper, Varga has already repeatedly stated that she expects a right-wing turnaround from next year's EP elections.

In the 2019 EP elections, Viktor Orbán also sent a justice minister to Brussels to head the list of Fidesz-KDNP candidates, László Trócsányi. He was Minister of Justice in the Orbán government from 2014 to 2019, succeeded by Judit Varga. Trócsányi has been a member of the European Parliament since then, serving on the Constitutional Affairs Committee and as an alternate member of the Foreign Affairs Committee.

According to her CV, Judit Varga worked as a political advisor in the European Parliament for nine years from 2009, was a member of former President János Áder's EU staff, returned home in 2018 and became Minister of State for EU Relations at the Prime Minister's Office, and was appointed Minister of Justice in July 2019.

If indeed Varga becomes the leader of the Fidesz-KDNP list in the European Parliament, and Alexandra Szentkirályi, the current government spokesperson, is indeed nominated by the governing party as the Mayor of Budapest next year, as rumours have it, then together with the President of the Republic Katalin Novák, three women could end up in three important positions from the Orbán government.

Judit Varga's name has already come up several times in the court hearing of the Schadl-Völner case, the most serious corruption case of recent years, but the Justice Minister has not yet been called as a witness by the court. Telex has been following the so-called Schadl-Völner case from the beginning, and you can find our full coverage of the case here.