The Kaposvár Most news portal was the first to report the news of the funeral reported on Thursday night, which was informed by the family that István Gyenesei died that day. Not long following, the news was also announced on the former politician’s social media page.
“István Gyenesei was always on the move. He created and fought. He created to make Somogy and Hungary happier and fought to make things better. He fought even when the odds were once morest him. He believed in life, in healing. The Perpetual Mover now rests. But everything he created will stay with us forever and live on in us,” they wrote.
Kaposvár Most recalled: last October, the former Member of Parliament announced on his social media page that the disease, as a result of which his right arm had to be amputated a few months before, “forced him into the ring” once more.
Struggle and waiting go hand in hand with me now. I feel that I am not, I will not be alone, and this gives me special strength. But strength is not enough now. If you write, I ask now, as I did a few months ago, that you send not regrets, but strength
he wrote then.
Approaching his 75th birthday in March 2023, he summed up his career as follows: “One of the instinctive guiding principles of my life was not to be mediocre. Whatever I started, whatever assignment I was given, I wanted to be the best at it. A lot of work was not a burden, because I might deal with what I might bring joy to myself and others, above all, serving Somogyósząg.”
According to Kaposvár Most, István Gyenesei died two months following the Somogyért Association held its renewal general meeting at the end of January, where he was elected president once more – this time for the eighth time. Although he trusted all along that he would overcome his illness, at that point he already testified regarding the decrease in his chances of living, and he also shared his political legacy with those present.
His biography
István Gyenesei was born in 1948 in Kaposvár. After graduation, he studied agricultural economics at the University of Agricultural Sciences in Gödöllő and graduated in 1972. He obtained his doctorate in 1982, and later studied political science at Eötvös Loránd University.
His political career began before the system change: in 1973 he joined the apparatus of the Hungarian Communist Youth Association (KISZ), where he first became the secretary of the Somogy County Committee, then in 1977 he became the head of the agricultural and village department of the Central Committee of the KISZ. Between 1982 and 1984, he was a KB instructor at the MSZMP, then until 1985 the economic policy secretary of the Somogy County Committee.
He was a member of the MSZMP between 1975 and 1989. In 1985, he worked as a member of the Somogy County Council, and from 1990, the Somogy County Assembly. In 1985, he was appointed chairman of the Somogy County Council, the youngest council chairman in the country. Even following the system change, he was confirmed in his county position, now as chairman of the Somogy County Assembly.
In 1994, he founded the Somogyért Association. Between 1994 and 1998, he was a member of the county assembly and the Kaposvár municipality. Between 1995 and 1996, he first worked as an economic consultant, and then until 1998 as the South Transdanubian director of FHB Rt. In 1998, he was re-elected as the president of the general assembly, in which position he was confirmed in 2002.
In 2001, with Mihály Kupa, he founded the Third Side for Hungary Association, which was one of the founding organizations of the Centrum Party in 2002.
In 2002, he was the party’s parliamentary representative candidate, and between 2003 and 2004 he served as vice president, but later left the party.
In the 2006 parliamentary election, he was elected as a representative in the electoral district based in Nagyatád. At the same time, he lost in the municipal election, the post of president was taken over by Attila Gelencsér, and he became a councilor of the general assembly.
On April 28, 2008, Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány asked him to become Minister of Local Government. He held the position for less than a year.
In the 2010 parliamentary elections, he ran once more in Nagyatád, but was defeated in the first round. After major politics, he was only involved in politics in the county assembly, and his attention increasingly turned to brandy brewing. He graduated from school and established the Gyenesei Pálinkárium in his home on Ezredév Street, which produced award-winning distillates one following another.
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