Szijjártó exits politics for BYD - Magyar says it proves whose interests he served - The Budapest Times
Péter Szijjártó is resigning his parliamentary mandate and will take up a position at BYD. The Fidesz MP announced this on his Facebook page on Wednesday. “I have submitted my resignation from my parliamentary. . .
Péter Szijjártó is resigning his parliamentary mandate and will take up a position at BYD. The Fidesz MP announced this on his Facebook page on Wednesday. “I have submitted my resignation from my parliamentary mandate. The reason is that I have received an extraordinarily flattering offer from one of the defining companies of the global economy to fill an international position,” wrote the former Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, adding that he will continue working as the executive responsible for the company group’s external relations and the development of new business lines. He added that BYD is one of the greatest automotive success stories of the past twenty years and also the world’s leading manufacturer of new-energy vehicles. MTI received information from BYD Hungary that Péter Szijjártó will hold a “global, international position” and will not be part of the company’s management in Hungary. The Fidesz parliamentary group stated in a press release sent to MTI that they congratulate Péter Szijjártó on his appointment “with joy and pride” and wish him much success in his future work. The statement referred to Péter Szijjártó as “the most successful foreign minister of the nearly four decades since the change of regime,” adding that with the executive position at BYD, Péter Szijjártó “will become the most important and most significant Hungarian company executive in the world. ” They stressed that not a single Hungarian has held such a senior position at a company of this size and with such weight in the international economic arena. According to the Fidesz parliamentary group, Péter Szijjártó will resign his parliamentary mandate due to his duties as a company executive, “but his commitment to his homeland and to the Hungarian people remains unbroken. ”“He will not represent the interests of a foreign company — e. g. Shell — within the Hungarian government, but will instead represent the interests of Hungary and the Hungarian people within one of the world’s most significant companies, one that also shapes the Hungarian economy,” the statement read. Bertalan Havasi, Fidesz’s communications director, told MTI that the national presidency of Fidesz would address personnel decisions relating to the parliamentary group at its meeting next week. Asked whether party chairman Viktor Orbán had been aware of his former minister’s resignation, Bertalan Havasi said that Péter Szijjártó and Viktor Orbán had consulted on several occasions in recent weeks. Viktor Orbán responded on Facebook: “The signing of the summer goes to BYD. Go, Péter!”On his Facebook page, Péter Magyar, the prime ministerial candidate, wrote that Péter Szijjártó, the “former foreign minister who had previously represented foreign interests,” officially announced today that he is leaving politics and will become the head of a Chinese company for which he had previously lobbied to secure enormous Hungarian state subsidies. “The difference compared to before will be that from now on, it will not be the Hungarian people paying Péter Szijjártó for the same ‘work,’ but his actual employer,” he added. Péter Magyar further noted that in hindsight, even Fidesz voters may now come to see whose interests the former foreign minister of the Orbán government had represented in connection with the hundreds-of-billions-worth investments in the battery and automotive industries. László Toroczkai, president of the Mi Hazánk Mozgalom, wrote in his latest post on X that Péter Szijjártó has departed to BYD, one of the world’s largest global corporations, while István Kapitány has arrived from Shell, another one of the world’s largest global corporations. “We are staying with our compatriots. It would be so good to try, just once, what it is like when our country is not run by lobbyists for multinationals,” he stressed. Artificial intelligence was used for the translation of parts of the original Hungarian text.