Profession politician Name Florian Farkas | Role Politician | |
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Born 4 September 1957 (age 66)
Tiszaroff, Hungary ( 1957-09-04 ) Political party Lungo Drom (alliance with Fidesz) | ||
Flórián Farkas (born September 4, 1957) is a Hungarian Romani politician, President of the Lungo Drom party and former head of the National Roma Council. He is a member of the National Assembly (MP) since 2002.
Career
Farkas learned politology at the faculty of the Law at the Eötvös Loránd University between 2001 and 2005. He acquired a university degree in politology there in 2005 and since then he has been a part-time teacher in the university. He has taken an active part in Roma public life since 1983. He worked as a social worker for Roma families for the local council of Szolnok and was a member of the Roma Coordination Committee of Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok County from 1985. He became secretary of the National Gypsy Council (OCÖ) in 1987, and secretary general, then president of Lungo Drom Roma Advocacy Alliance.
From 1995 to 1999, he was chairman of the National Gypsy Minority Council, then from 1999 to 2002 chairman of the National Gypsy Council. On 27 March 2003, he established a new organization, the National Association of Roma Councils by uniting thirty regional Roma organisations as well as nine hundred branches of the Lungo Drom. He was elected chairman of the federal board of the organization. He was among the signatories of the electoral agreement of 21 December 2001 concluded by the Fidesz, the Hungarian Democratic Forum (MDF) and Lungo Drom National Roma Advocacy and Civil Alliance. The cooperation agreement was aimed at the promotion of the social integration of the Roma population and the preservation of the achievements of the Roma policy encouraging the parliamentary representation of the Roma.
He secured a seat in the Parliament in the 2002 general elections as a candidate on the Fidesz National List. Since May he has been participating in the work of the Committee on Human Rights, Minority and Religion as well as the Committee on European Integration. He has held the post of deputy parliamentary group leader since 15 May 2004. He was elected member of the Szolnok Assembly in the local elections in the autumn of 2002. He was elected MP from the national list in the 2006 elections.
Four years later he became MP from the Budapest Regional List. He was appointed Ministerial Commissioner for the Romani Affairs by Minister of Justice Tibor Navracsics on 1 July 2010. The Lungo Drom won the Hungarian minority elections of 2011, as a result he was elected president of the National Gypsy Council for the second term, following Orbán Kolompár. In February 2011, the OCÖ adopted a new statute and renamed to National Roma Council (ORÖ).