Former Hungarian interior minister awarded International Adalbert Prize

Budapest (MTI) – Imre Kónya, a former interior minister of Hungary, has been awarded the 2017 International Adalbert Prize for the promotion of peace, freedom and cooperation in Europe.

Kónya will be handed the prize on June 10 next year, the Krefeld-based Adalbert Foundation said in a statement.

Kónya served as a moderator in the meetings of the Opposition Roundtable, a coalition of opposition groups set up just before Hungary’s change of regime to negotiate with the Hungarian Socialist Workers’ Party on transition to democracy. A member of the Hungarian Democratic Forum, which won the first free elections, Kónya went on to become the ruling party’s parliamentary group leader.

He served as interior minister in 1993-94 under Prime Minister Péter Boross, who took office after the death of József Antall.

The Adalbert Foundation noted that Antall had been named a posthumous recipient of the prize in 1996.

The list of recipients — most of whom are foreigners — also includes Árpád Göncz, Hungary’s first post-communist president between 1990 and 2000, the foundation noted.

Source: MTI