Ferenc Gyurcsány resigns from all posts and withdraws from public life

Ferenc Gyurcsány is resigning from his position as president of Demokratikus Koalíció (DK – Democratic Coalition) and all other posts, and is also withdrawing from public life, Klára Dobrev announced on her Facebook page. The DK MEP also said in her post that she and the former prime minister had decided to end their marriage. She wrote:

“Ferenc Gyurcsány has announced his decision to resign as president of the DK, to step down as leader of the parliamentary group, to resign his seat in parliament, and to withdraw from public life. He will not stand in the elections,”

Dobrev added that the decision had been accepted by the DK's leadership and that Ferenc Gyurcsány would "always have the friendship, love and respect of the entire DK community."

According to Dobrev, the decision was made because Gyurcsány "wants to put an end to the Hungarian right wing's attempts to escape all its sins by resorting to lying about Gyurcsány."

She added that the party would elect a new president within weeks, and said that she also planned to run for the post. "The DK is the only Hungarian party where the president is not elected by a small group of congress delegates, but by the entire membership of the party." We have always done it this way, and consider it truly democratic. During the transitional period, acting vice president Csaba Molnár will be leading the party.

Dobrev concluded her post with another announcement:

“Feri and I would like to share a painful personal matter too, with this being the first and last time we talk about it publicly. After many months of anguish, attempts at rebuilding, and countless nights of discussion, we have arrived at what is perhaps the most difficult decision of our lives: we are getting divorced.”

She wrote that their mutual respect and friendship will remain forever, but that they are now in mourning. "After a long time, this is the first thing we have to face separately, instead of together," Dobrev said.

Ferenc Gyurcsány and Klára Dobrev were married in 1995. They have three children together, and Gyurcsány has two children from a previous marriage. Ferenc Gyurcsány was Prime Minister of Hungary between 2004 and 2009, and after the recording of a speech he gave in Őszöd in 2006 was leaked, opposition parties and crowds of protesters demanded his resignation. The ensuing siege of the protesters on the public broadcaster's headquarters in September 2006 is considered one of the most significant public events in Hungary since the fall of communism.

He was eventually replaced as prime minister by Gordon Bajnai in the spring of 2009. Afterwards, Ferenc Gyurcsány founded Demokratikus Koalíció and has been its president since 2011.

"Nothing will change! With Klára Dobrev at the helm, DK will remain just as pro-Ukrainian and obedient to Brussels as the Tisza Party," the government said it its reaction to the news, sent to Telex. Péter Magyar sees things differently: he said that according to the Tisza Party, we are now one step closer to ending the Orbán-Gyurcsány era.