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The capital of Hungary is Budapest, its area measures 93,000 square kilometres, the population is made up of 10,200,000 inhabitants, the gross domestic product is 72,9 billion Euros. The inflation is 6%, its unemployment rate is 5.9%, the deficit is –5.1% and its National debt is 59.7%. The new Hungarian constitution, passed on 23rd October ’89, confirmed the Republican organisation of the country. It was born, as the date shows, thanks to the impulse of those great social, economic and political changes carried out at the end of the ‘80s, together with Berlin’s Wall downfall. Those events suggested a reformation of the ’49 Hungarian constitution. Hungary presently has a parliamentary form of government. The Prime Minister is responsible towards the Parliament. The Hungarian Parliament has a mono-cameral structure and it is made up of 386 members elected every 4 years, according to a mixed electoral system, that includes elements of a proportional system and elements of a majority system. The President of Republic is elected every 5 years, and his mandate can be confirmed just once. The present President of Republic, Ferenc Màdl, was elected in June 2000. The National Assembly elects the Prime Minister, according to the President of Republic’s proposals, and passes the Government program. The Prime minister in office is Ferenc Gyurcsàny. The first free elections, in May 1990, saw the overwhelming victory of the Liberal coalition leaded by the Hungarian Democratic Forum. In ’94 there was a first change of Government, with the victory of the Socialist Party together with the Liberal-Democratic Alliance. The Socialist party carried on the privatisation policy and the approach to the NATO block. After another change of Government in ’98, a centre-leftist coalition, made up of the Socialist Party and the Liberal-Democratic Alliance, won again. Pèter Medgyessy, was appointed Prime Minister but he resigned in August 2004, and he was replaced by Ferenc Gyurcsàny. Hungary joined the European Union on 1st May 2004, after presenting the application for the adhesion in 1994, the request was accepted by Laeken’ s Council in 2001. The decision of joining the Union was taken by the a referendum held in April 2003, the affluence to the polls was quite low, 40%, but the percentage of “Yes” was very high, touching the 80%. The Treaty of Nice of 2000 awards 24 seats out of 732 within the European Parliament, after the enlargement. The last elections took place on 13th June 2004 and the affluence to the polls was very low, just the 38.5% of the voting people, the lowest in Hungary since free elections took place. The Moderate Conservatory Party won and gained 12 seats. Its deputies joined the European Popular Party. The Socialist Party didn’t have a good result, gaining just 9 seats. Within Barroso’s Commission the Hungarian member is the former Foreign Minister Laszlo Kovacs, commissary for the taxation and the customs Union.
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