New President Promises to be "Passive," "Strict" and Quiet

Hungarians are today getting to know a little more about their new President-elect, László Sólyom, and so we're going to as well. Before giving you the obligatory background info on Sólyom, whose name means "hawk" in Hungarian, we will first treat you to what we consider to be one of the coolest things we've ever heard come out of the mouth of a politician. According to this report by Associated Press ace Pablo Gorondi, following his acceptance speech to Parliament yesterday, Sólyom told reporters that he intended to be a "passive, strict president who speaks little." Now, if you don't know why we think this is so super, you have probably spent mercifully little time following Hungarian politics, which is generally full of insufferably noisy and undisciplined busybodies.

No time to talk: Sólyom (right) with predecessor Ferenc Mádl

So who is László Sólyom? According to a biographical rundown on Index.hu, he was born in Pécs on January 3rd, 1942, and graduated from law university in 1964. In 1966, he became an assistant teacher at the law faculty of the University of Jena in Germany, where he earned his doctorate in German civilian law. Between 1969 and 1983, he was a scientific researcher at the MTA State and Law Science Institution, and between 1970 and 1975, at the library of Parliament. He became a professor at the civilian law faculty of ELTE-ÁJK in 1983, and then in 1996 started working at Pázmány Péter Catholic University as faculty head professor. Since 2002, he has been also teaching at the Budapest Andrássy Gyula German Language University.

In addition to his academic career, Sólyom has been deeply but quietly involved in the public life of Hungary. He got involved in politics through environmental protection movements in the early 1980s, and in 1987 was a founding member of the center-right Hungarian Democratic Forum. He was vice-president of the Constitution Court when it was founded in 1989, and became its first president a year later. During his presidency of the court, which lasted until 1998, a number of momentous decisions were made, including the banning of capital punishment.

Sólyom's wife is also a teacher, and they have two children and nine grandchildren. He speaks German, English and French, though none, we like to think, very loudly.