Hungary appoints minister for EU affairs

János Bóka will become the minister responsible for EU affairs in the Hungarian government, the minister in charge of the Prime Minister's Office told MTI (the Hungarian State News Agency) on Monday. Gergely Gulyás said that the post will be filled by János Bóka, who is currently State Secretary for EU affairs at the Ministry of Justice, as of 1 August. Bóka will also be given a ministry, called the Ministry of EU Affairs, and the government has already submitted an amendment pertinent to this to parliament.

Gulyás said that the Prime Minister had agreed with Bence Tuzson, the new Justice Minister, that under his leadership, the justice ministry would operate as a “traditional justice ministry”. Because of this, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán entrusted the responsibility for EU affairs to János Bóka, who will head the department as minister.

Bóka's appointment is also justified by the fact that Hungary will assume the rotating presidency of the European Union (EU) in the second half of 2024, Gulyás explained. "The new minister will therefore be responsible for coordinating preparations for the presidency with the country's EU allies as well as the various ministries within the government," Gergely Gulyás said.

We have already reported about Bence Tuzson requesting not to have to deal with EU affairs because he wants "a clean, traditional justice ministry structure". We introduced Bence Tuzson, Antal Rogán's right-hand man, in this article.

Bence Tuzson will be taking over as Justice Minister following Judit Varga's resignation last week. We also wrote about why Varga's departure doesn't make her affairs disappear.