predecessor successor birth_place profession party birth_date order term_start image article_title term_end name
károly polinszky béla köpeczi 13px kóny , kingdom of hungary politician mdp , mszmp , mszp , ndsz 26 november 1933 minister of education of hungary 27 june 1980 Ünnepi könyvhét 2012 - 0003.jpg imre pozsgay
 25 june 1982 imre pozsgay
imre pozsgay

imre pozsgay -lrb- born 1933 in kóny -rrb- is a hungarian , ex-communist , politician who played a key role in hungary 's transition to democracy after 1988 .
he is currently an advisor to prime minister viktor orbán .
pozsgay joined the hungarian socialist workers ' party after he graduated with an english degree from the lenin institute in budapest .
he worked for the party at both local and national levels and became deputy minister in 1975 .
on 28 january 1989 , he -lrb- although a member of the politburo -rrb- stunned the communist establishment by labelling the 1956 hungarian revolution not a counterrevolution but a `` popular uprising '' .
his calls for reform -lrb- which he describes in his book `` turning point and reform '' -rrb- led to a falling-out with the party 's leader jános kádár which in turn moved pozsgay to become chairman of the party 's mass organization the patriotic front .
kádár was removed from his minister of state position in 1988 and pozsgay was placed into his old position .
jointly with otto von habsburg , imre pozsgay was the sponsor of the pan-european picnic of 19 august 1989 , where hundreds of east germans who were visiting hungary were able to cross the previously impenetrable iron curtain into austria .
in october 1989 , the hungarian socialist workers party renamed itself the hungarian socialist party and announced poszgay as their deputy president .
however in 1991 he quit the party to form a new one , which he headed himself , called the national democratic alliance .
it lasted until 1996 .
pozsgay was a member of the national assembly of hungary from 1983 to 1994 and since then has been teaching at the university of debrecen .
