HUNGARY: Hungary's new prime minister-elect - a millionaire magnate who models himself on British leader Mr Tony Blair - urged the nation yesterday to have faith in his brand of "third way" politics and told his Socialist party to brace itself for tough reform.
The ruling Socialists voted overwhelmingly on Wednesday night to make Mr Ferenc Gyurcsany (43), its candidate for the premiership, rejecting a party stalwart and opening what many hope will be a new chapter for Hungary's dull and divided left wing.
The charismatic Mr Gyurcsany must now await the approval of President Ferenc Madl to step into the post vacated by Mr Peter Medgyessy, who was ousted after bitter infighting in a coalition government whose ratings have tumbled in recent months.
"We can both move toward stability and at the same time realise a very dynamic social programme," Mr Gyurcsany said yesterday.
"The economy's robust growth, improving inflation figures, improving export performance and employment will make it possible for us to implement our social policy targets next year, and we want to make them more dynamic and resolute."
Mr Gyurcsany has pledged to combine open markets and a privatisation programme with social spending to benefit Hungary's poor, as this country of 10 million adapts to life in the EU and aims to adopt the euro in 2010.
"A government can make two mistakes - to formulate social policies without caring about the economy or to pursue economic policies without a social programme.
"As prime minister I will avoid those mistakes," he told his fellow Socialists after they had given him a surprise win over left-wing veteran Mr Peter Kiss. The media-savvy former sports minister said the left had to modernise to stay in power and fight off the resurgent Fidesz party of the centre-right.
"I think this congress gave a mandate for changes and for making changes. I am in favour of a deeper restructuring (of the party) . . . I want clearer policies so that we can see where Hungary is going," he said.
The ousted Mr Medgyessy actually brought his successor into politics in 2002 as a strategic adviser, with a brief to shake up a Hungarian left struggling to escape its communist legacy and stifling party bureaucracy.
Mr Gyurcsany came from poor family in southern Hungary and was a member of the Communist youth movement before moving into business as the Soviet bloc collapsed.
A stellar career leading a property firm and snapping up state assets cheaply brought him an estimated €14 million fortune and a reputation as a "champagne socialist" that still fuels the ire of his many critics. But his swift rise through the political ranks has brought grudging respect from many of his former opponents, who now see him as perhaps the only top left-winger capable of handling the challenge of populist - and occasionally nationalist - Fidesz leader Mr Viktor Orban.
Mr Gyurcsany is seen as an aggressive fighter, capable of winning both an open scrap and the kind of internecine struggles that have bedevilled the Socialists and their coalition partners, the Free Democrats: his critics even accuse him of stabbing Mr Medgyessy in the back, by resigning from the cabinet earlier this year and saying he no longer had faith in his former mentor.
The keen marathon runner, who has been married three times and has four children, makes a virtue of a determination that many prefer to call ruthlessness.
"If someone in a football match moans that the opposition are always playing in his half and that he is pinned in front of his own posts, he shouldn't complain," he told Hungarian television in an interview this week.
"We must play so that my team occupies the biggest part of the whole pitch.
"We should dictate the tempo and our opponents should be forced to defend, and that's the way we'll play."
Mr Gyurcsany's backers have urged Mr Madl to find a shortcut through Hungary's cumbersome constitutional procedures and approve the new prime minister as quickly as possible.