Flórián Farkas (born 4 September 1957) is óriáa Hungarian Romani politician, President of the Lungo Drom party and former head of the National Roma Council. He was a member of the National Assembly (MP) from 2002 to 2022.
Career
Studies
Referring to his biography, Farkas learned politology at the faculty of the Law at the Eötvös Loránd University between 2001 and 2005. He acquired a university degree in political science there in 2005 and since then he has been a part-time teacher in the university. Farkas has never could provide any evidence of his university degree or at least of his secondary school graduation. However, there are evidences proving the opposite, and the rector of ELTE firmly refuted his activity as a teacher. That's also proven, Farkas was passing the 8-year-long elementary school over 15 years, and he probably finished the 8th class in prison, when he was twenty years old.
Early career
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.
In 1996, a prosecution investigation was launched into the foundations set up by Lungo Drom. As a result, Farkas was charged in 1998 with "embezzlement and breach of accounting discipline." However, he received a presidential pardon from Árpád Göncz, therefore the court hearing was suspended. The records of the pardon proceedings were encrypted for 30 years.
Member of Parliament
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 held the post of deputy parliamentary group leader of Fidesz from 15 May 2002 to 1 November 2015. 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). Farkas was re-elected MP via the national list of Fidesz in the 2014 parliamentary election. He worked in the Committee on European Affairs from May 2014 to September 2016. Following the 2010 parliamentary election, when Viktor Orbán and his Fidesz party formed a government with two-thirds majority, Farkas became de facto representative and liaison politician between the Roma community and the Hungarian government. A Gypsy Conciliation Council was established in 2013 too, with the involvement of Farkas, but the organization never worked in practice.