Ruling Party Nominee Ader Elected President of Hungary

Member of EU Parliament, now elected President of Hungary, Janos Ader, looks on during the plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, 18 April 2012. EPA/BGNES

Janos Ader, the nominee of the ruling rightist party Fidesz and Prime Minister Viktor Orban, has been elected by the Hungarian Parliament as the new President of Hungary.

Janos Ader, a 24-year ally of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, was nominated to become the country's next president, succeeding Pal Schmitt, who quit after a panel ruled he plagiarized parts of his doctoral thesis.

The previous Hungarian President Pal Schmitt resigned in early April after losing doctorate in a plagiarism scandal that involves copying from Bulgarian researcher Nikolai Georgiev, among others.

Ader was elected Wednesday with a total of 262 MPs voting in favor of his election in the 386-seat Hungarian Parliament in what was a widely expected victory, as reported by international media.

Ader, a 52-year-old lawyer, joined Fidesz in 1988, the year Orban co-founded the party. He became a member of parliament in 1990 in Hungary's first free elections after the end of communism and worked in the legislature until becoming a member of the European Parliament in 2009.

He has served as the party's vice president and was parliament's speaker during Orban's first term as premier from 1998 to 2002. He led Fidesz in the legislature in opposition from 2002 to 2006.

Schmitt, a two-time Olympic fencing champion and another Fidesz member who served in the European Parliament, bowed to pressure to quit this month after Budapest-based Semmelweis University stripped him of his doctoral degree in sports. He's the first president to quit since communism ended in 1990.

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