Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg County
He ran in the 1990 parliamentary election. He has been a Member of Parliament since 1994 (representing Nyíregyháza, Constituency II, Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg County in 1994, and elected from the party's Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg County Regional List in 1998, the party's National List since 2006). During the term of the Gyula Horn Cabinet, he held the position of Minister of Environment and Regional Development. He was Chairman of the Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg County branch of the Hungarian Socialist Party from 1999, then as party director from November 2000 to May 2002.