Bajnai is expected to be formally appointed by the Parliament in Budapest today (14 April).
A 41-year-old businessman turned politician, Bajnai takes over from the unpopular Ferenc Gyurcsány and has just one year before a national election to pull the Central European nation of 10 million out of its economic crisis.
But the new Prime Minister faces a relentless opposition, poor approval ratings and lingering public criticism over a past business failure. He takes over an economy expected to contract 6% this year and is kept afloat by a $25.1 billion IMF-led lifeline.
Bajnai is a political independent and semi-professional soccer player. He served as economy minister for the past year. His public approval rating as economy minister is at a dismal 29 points and the opposition, who dubbed him a "Gyurcsány clone," refuses even to sit down with him. It says Bajnai will be the nation's "bloodsucker" like his predecessor.
The new Prime Minister can also hardly count on firm support from the ruling Socialists, who will elect him to office. The party is in disarray, struggling with record low ratings and Bajnai is about to ask them to approve painful welfare and pension cuts.
‘Goose Gordon’
Bajnai's own past could also come back to haunt him.
He presided over the 2003 failure of poultry producer Hajdu-Bet in which hundreds of producers lost their savings. Opposition newspapers, who have dubbed him "Goose Gordon," argued that a man who could not pilot a poultry firm through its difficulties should not be put in charge of a country.
Bajnai plays goalkeeper for the 43rd Epitok or Builder sports club, a fourth division soccer team. He says his goalkeeping experience remains a valuable asset because it taught him how to play in a team, and his job was to stay at the back, defend, and not neglect his responsibilities to run up field and try fancy footwork.
(EurActiv with Reuters.)
