Mihály Varga will become the new chief negotiator of the IMF talks on 1, June, replacing Tamás Fellegi, the ex-National Development Minister at the post. Mihály Varga, who is vice president of the governing FIDESZ party, was Finance Minister from 2001 to 2002 and has been state secretary of the Prime Minister’s Office since 2010. His main role was to maintain contact between Viktor Orbán and the ministers. According to Timothy Ash, head of emerging markets research at Royal Bank of Scotland this is a fortunate choice, because Varga has a good reputation in financial circles and is considered as a serious politician both in political and economic terms. The change could be a signal that Orbán and the government would like to take the IMF talks really seriously. There had been suspicion that this would not be the case.
