Bajnai hired by a global investment firm

As former PM Bajnai is named Chief Operating Officer of the Paris based Meridiam investment firm, commentators on both the left and right agree that Bajnai is quitting politics. While a right-wing columnist considers this as good riddance for Hungary, a left-wing analyst blames Bajnai’s failure on Gyurcsány and Mesterházy.

Former PM Gordon Bajnai has announced that he is joining the Meridiam investment and asset management company as Chief Operating Officer. Mr. Bajnai has been a board member of Meridian since 2011. Bajnai said that his employment in Paris would not impact his political career, and he would remain chairman of his Together 2014 party, although that title is largely honorary, since he does not to take an active part in its activities.

Bajnai has had enough of being unsuccessful, and decided to leave politics for the business world, where he has always felt more comfortable, Matild Torkos comments in Magyar Nemzet. The pro-government columnist finds it unlikely that Bajnai could remain the leader of Together 2014 while at the same time having a job in Paris. Torkos speculates that Bajnai has for two years planned to exit Hungarian politics and wonders if he might have represented the interest of the Meridiam company rather than the interests of Hungary at the meeting of the Bilderberg Group (see BudaPost,  June 3, 2014), which group, according to Torkos, “is known for its secret plots by background powers”. In conclusion, Torkos suggests that both Bajnai and the country will be better off after Bajnai’s decision to retire from politics.

In Népszava, Péter Somfai regrets that Bajnai was not successful in his efforts to unite the Left. He believes that Bajnai was an idealist, who finally succumbed to the simultaneous attacks from Right and Left. The left-wing columnist finds it sad that both former MSZP leader Mesterházy and former PM Gyurcsány did their best to pull the carpet from under Bajnai’s feet and obstruct the unification of the Left. “Bajnai has been defeated by his own. He decided to go back to France, since he feels more comfortable in business where fair rules exist. We will miss him.”

Tags: Bajnai, Gyurcsány, Mesterházy, Together 2014