Ferenc József Gelencsér (21 July 1990) is a Hungarian politician, member of the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repr ...

, and leader of the

Momentum Movement Momentum Movement (, Momentum) is a centrist Hungarian political party founded in March 2017. It came to national prominence as a political association in January 2017 after organizing a petition about the Budapest bid for the 2024 Summer Olympics ...

party from 2022 to 2024.

Career

Gelencsér comes from a conservative family with classic right-wing values. His father was a founding member of the

Hungarian Democratic Forum The Hungarian Democratic Forum (, , MDF) was a centre-right political party in Hungary. It had a Hungarian nationalist, national-conservative, Christian-democratic ideology. The party was represented continuously in the National Assembly from t ...

. He graduated in International Studies from

Eötvös Loránd University Eötvös Loránd University (, ELTE, also known as ''University of Budapest'') is a Hungarian public research university based in Budapest. Founded in 1635, ELTE is one of the largest and most prestigious public higher education institutions in ...

. In 2013, he spent some time in

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

working for a foundation that helps Tibetan refugees. From 2018 to 2019 he worked as a sales assistant at Di Verdi Hotel Kft. and in 2019 as a financial analyst at Eaton Hungary Kft. In 2016, he co-founded the Momentum Movement and became the president of the party's 1st district branch. In the 2019 local elections, Ferenc Gelencsér won a mandate of the Budapest I. district No. 5 single mandate constituency as a joint candidate of

United for Hungary United for Hungary (, ) was a big tent political alliance in Hungary that was formed to compete in the 2022 Hungarian parliamentary election, 2022 parliamentary election. The alliance lost the 2022 election, and dissolved shortly after. History ...

. He ran unsuccessfully in the 2021 opposition primary as a challenger to LMP politician

Antal Csárdi Antal Csárdi (born in Budapest on November 8, 1976) is a Hungarian entrepreneur and politician. He is a member of National Assembly of Hungary. In the 2018 parliamentary election he was elected a member of the National Assembly, and is currentl ...

in Budapest's parliamentary constituency No. 1. However, he was placed 26th on the joint opposition list as the third name of his party. In the 2022 parliamentary election, Gelencsér was elected to parliament from the opposition joint list. The Momentum faction elected him deputy leader. He wanted to be a member of two parliamentary committees, the Foreign Affairs and Defence Committees, but was rejected by House Speaker

László Kövér László Kövér (; born 29 December 1959) is a Hungarian politician who is the current List of speakers of the National Assembly (Hungary), speaker of the National Assembly of Hungary. Under his capacity as speaker, he was also twice acting pre ...

, without giving reasons.

Anna Donáth Anna Júlia Donáth (born 6 April 1987) is a Hungarian politician. She was elected as a Momentum Movement (part of the Renew Europe group) Member of the European Parliament (MEP) in the 2019 European Parliament election. Donáth was the leader ...

, who had been Momentum's leader since November 2021, announced on 9 May 2022 that she was pregnant, and would not stand for the party's renewal election. Ferenc Gelencsér then announced on 23 May that he would become the party's leader. In addition to him,

Miklós Hajnal Miklós (, ) is a given name or surname, the Hungarian form of the Greek (English ''Nicholas''), and may refer to: In Hungarian politics * Miklós Bánffy, Hungarian nobleman, politician, and novelist * Miklós Horthy, Regent of the Kingdom of H ...

and

Gábor Kerpel-Fronius Gábor (sometimes written Gabor) may refer to: * Gábor (given name) * Gabor (surname) * Gabor sisters, the three famous actresses, Eva, Magda and Zsa Zsa * Several scientific terms named after Dennis Gabor ** Gabor atom ** Gabor filter, a linear ...

also entered the race. At the 29 May election, the delegates finally elected Gelencsér. The new party president promised that instead of "aimless Orbán-hate" he would seek to communicate Momentum's ideas on how to solve the country's problems to the electorate. He was elected leader of the Momentum parliamentary group in July 2022. Under his leadership, the party was more likely to notice itself with PR actions, while it was unable to achieve an increase in popularity. For instance, Gelencsér and other MPs dismantled the cordon around the

Carmelite Monastery of Buda The Carmelite Monastery of Buda ( or ''Karmelita kolostor'') is a building in the Castle Quarter (Budapest), Castle Quarter of Budapest, the capital city of Hungary, that serves as the seat of the Prime Minister of Hungary. It was formerly a Carm ...

(Orbán's residence) and they did other spectacular actions that did not thematize the public discourse. According to the critics, Gelencsér also personally performed poorly on several occasions in relation to his political opponents. Gelencsér resigned as president of Momentum on 20 December 2023. He was succeeded by Anna Donáth in January 2024. Gelencsér was replaced as leader of the parliamentary group too on 26 February 2024, when he was succeeded by Dávid Bedő.Volt elnökét még a parlamenti frakció éléről is leváltotta a Momentum
– Hvg.hu, 2024-02-26.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gelencser, Ferenc 1990 births Living people Momentum Movement politicians Members of the National Assembly of Hungary (2022–2026)