Leftist politician lacking necessary qualifications was employed by university illegally

Leftist politician lacking necessary qualifications was employed by university illegally

The sitting left-wing mayor of Budapest finds himself in yet another embarrassing situation. It turns out that his previous appointment as a teaching assistant and assistant professor at the Corvinus University of Budapest was illegal, as he did not have the appropriate qualifications and legal status to fill the position. This is not the first time the mayor – also in the running for the opposition left-wing coalition's prime ministerial candidacy – is caught up in a quagmire due to his lack of qualifications.

POLITICS SEPTEMBER 11. 2021 17:26

The Hungarian Education Office’s (OH) investigation – reaching as far back as 1 January 2014 – into the legality of thirty-two lecturers on staff at the Corvinus University of Budapest, has come to an end. As it turns out, only the current left-wing mayor of Budapest, Gergely Karacsony, did not meet the necessary conditions for employment at the institution, writes the Hungarian daily Magyar Nemzet. The OH found that Mr Karacsony’s

appointment as a teaching assistant went against regulations because he did not possess the prescribed qualification of a comprehensive (type C) proficiency certificate or equivalent state-recognised certificate in at least one foreign language. His appointment as assistant professor also proved to be unlawful as, according to the documents on file, Karacsony had never officially enrolled as a PhD candidate, which is a condition of filling the position.

As the Magyar Nemzet writes, according to the regulations, the terms of appointment should have stipulated that Karacsony establish the legal status of doctoral candidate within three years, or otherwise face dismissal. However, this condition was not fulfilled by the prescribed deadline and it was only later, on 31 August 2014, that he initiated his termination of employment with mutual agreement.

It is now official, that Mr Karacsony was being employed illegally and that such appointment presumably was enabled by the „magnanimity” of the then university rector, Tamas Meszaros, who had deep ties with left-wing decision-makers, the portal writes.

Meszaros’s commitment to the left is evidenced by the fact that for many years under the left-wing governments (from 2002 to 2006), he held the highly political position of chairman of the board of the State Privatization and Asset Management Corporation. In this capacity, he had close connections with the decisive figures of the leftist-liberal governments, including those of the Gyurcsany Cabinet.

In those years, Mr Karacsony himself, worked as a trusted expert for the Hungarian Socialist (MSZP) and Social Democrat (SZDSZ) coalition government. As of 1 January 2004, Mr Karacsony’s company, Social Report Bt, was contracted by the State Secretariat for Policy Coordination of the Prime Minister’s Office to provide policy advice for a monthly fee.

Over the years, the company had amassed contracts from the Gyurcsany government on the order of 25 million Hungarian Forints (over 72000 euros).

As the Magyar Nemzet writes, the results of the OH’s investigation are not particularly surprising, as repeated instances of the Budapest mayor including false claims to qualifications such as an English language proficiency certification and a PhD degree on biographies, has attracted much public attention in recent months.

Gergely Karacsony

However, Gergely Karacsony managed to manouver himself into the most embarrassing situation by starting to explain away his scant knowledge of English. The issue came to light when the Budapest mayor responded to interview questions by The Economist in Hungarian, after which he immediately had to apologise to Prime Minister Viktor Orban for certain comments. Mr Karacsony’s insufficient English language skills were palpable and caused considerable complications in the interview, while at the same time raised concerns as to how Gergely Karacsony would manage should he become prime minister, when nearly all discourse in the foreign politics arena is conducted in English – where leaders often cannot have interpreters present.

Following the interview, Mayor Karacsony started providing a series of explanation-like excuses. First he gave a date, claiming it to be when he passed his language exam, but this turned out to be merely the completion of an internal university exam, not the required Hungarian state-accredited certification.

Then, after it became clear that he had neither a recognised language certification, nor any level of proficiency in English, in a television program he described

his foreign language skills as “hyper-passive”.

Next, he even gave the excuse of being dyslexic in childhood. In the meantime, a number of recordings have been made public, proving that the leftist mayor of Budapest and running aspirant for the opposition’s prime ministerial candidacy does not speak English at all.

POLITICS

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gergely karácsony, Hungary