Hungary's Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany sacked his finance minister on Monday and picked a party stalwart as his replacement, hoping the move will get the ruling Socialists to back badly needed fiscal reforms. The Socialist government has failed to meet its budget deficit targets in all of the past three years, and Janos Veres will be the country's third finance minister since the Socialists took power in 2002. His predecessor, ex-banker Tibor Draskovics, fared no better than Csaba Laszlo, the man he replaced a year ago.
Veres, 48, was a founding member of the Socialist Party and has been a member of parliament since 1994, whereas Draskovics was not a party member and had a rocky relationship with the Socialists.
"We need a person with a clear political backing to help me push through the key changes I want to pursue," Gyurcsany told Reuters in a brief interview.