Magyar Nemzet has learned that Justice Minister Judit Varga will lead the Fidesz-KDNP European Parliament list in the 2024 EP elections.

The minister, who recently brought the adoption of the justice package and the December agreement with the European Commission under the roof, and is currently working on the organization of the EU presidency due in the second half of 2024, will therefore receive a new task in the near future. Sources close to the government confirmed that

Judit Varga, who has already stated several times that she expects a right-wing turn from next year's EP elections, will take an active role in the European campaign,

and will work for the strengthening of conservative forces.

European "striker"

Judit Varga has been the Minister of Justice of the fourth Orbán government since 2019, and in the previous years she represented Hungary in Brussels and Strasbourg. From 2009, Judit Varga worked for nine years in the European Parliament as a political consultant, where for three years she was a member of the team of János Áder, Member of the European Parliament and later President of the Republic. During the years spent in Brussels and Strasbourg, Varga acquired detailed knowledge of the functioning of the European Union institutional system and legislation, so in 2018, on the recommendation of the Prime Minister, former head of state János Áder appointed him State Secretary responsible for European Union relations.

The lawyer-educated politician participated as state secretary in the development of the government's legal argument system, which sought to refute the claims of Judith Sargentini's report, which casts doubt on the Hungarian rule of law, and later represented the Hungarian government in the discussions of the Article 7 procedure.

On July 11, 2019, on the recommendation of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, the State Secretary was appointed Minister of Justice of the Orbán government, replacing László Trócsányi, who left for Brussels, and in addition to the Ministry of Justice, he was also responsible for representing EU affairs. When accepting his ministerial appointment, Viktor Orbán said:

We confirmed a new striker.

Judit Varga is a mother of three children, a lawyer with a scholarship from the republic, who is fluent in English, French and German, and has a conversational level of Spanish.

According to Forbes Magazine, she was the seventh most influential female public figure in Hungary in 2019 and the third in 2020.

Photo: Justice Minister Judit Varga / SOURCE: MTI/ZSOLT SZIGETVÁRY