Interview with Klára Dobrev

"I was a pioneer, I even joined the Young Socialists, but I never felt like a child of the party cadres," says the 33-year-old lawyer and economist. She is the child of a Bulgarian engineer, and was born in Sofia. After effortlessly gaining degrees in law and economics, she became private secretary to Etele Baráth, later running Tibor Draskovics's private office. She got to know Ferenc Gyurcsány, her future husband, in 1994, whilst working as a legal adviser to his company Altus Investments. She worked in a senior position in the Finance Ministry until 2000 - Fidesz clearly didn't recognise the danger - before moving to the Financial Law department of Budapest's ELTE University. She ran Péter Medgyessy's office during the 2002 elections and vice-president of the National Development Office after the Socialists' victory. She resigned from this position after her husband's sudden elevation to the prime ministership, since when she has been chairman of the board at the Foundation for Healthy Villages and an proponent of smear testing.

The campaign starts in the autumn. Are you going to be heading into the fray?
If you're the wife of a public figure, and especially if that public figure is the PM, then you have no choice about getting involved in your husband's activities. But if you're asking if I'll have an official role, then the answer is no.
Why so categorical? Are you worried that it would harm your relationship?
We worked together in the 2001 campaign. We set off just after 6am and got home after midnight, and we argued all the time. But, as you can see, we survived.
It's obvious where the PM's debating skills came from, then. So it's not a problem that your husband is a determined, strong, ambitious person? Not unlike you, in fact...
And our children too.
Oh dear. Let's stick to you: when you met the man who became your husband, you were a final-year economics student, and your husband had got through two wives and was making waves in the business world. Weren't there any conflicts with your parents over this "divorced man"?
Perhaps it's because I'm an only child, and perhaps because fathers have a special relationship with their daughters, but my father had a real challenge dealing with his paternal jealousies when Feri appeared. He was always a very sensitive person, in any case, blubbing at weddings and so on. Once, the son of a colleague got married, and he was so emotional that people congratulated him , thinking he was the proud father.
Of course, you had some disadvantages. You came from a family whose name was part of Hungarian political lore. What was it like to to have such a notorious grandfather?
Look, I'm quite sure that out of ten million Hungarians, some 9,999,000 have very strong views on my grandfather. But by now I've learned sufficient wisdom to let my grandfather live in my memory as I knew him, even if many millions of Hungarians have reason to see him in a very different light.
That sounds nice, but you were a hot-headed youth when the political changes came about. Did you never even read a line of samizdat?
Never. But I must have been in my second year of secondary school when I found a typed, yellowing copy of Solzhenitsyn's The Cancer Ward on my grandfather's bookshelf.
Wow! And how did that effect you?
It shook me. Later, as soon as I could, I read all of Solzhenitsyn's works. It's no secret that he remains one of my favourite writers.
But life went on. You went to university and even went to India as an intern. How did that come about?
There were lots of foreign exchange programmes, but nobody wanted to go to India. So I seized the opportunity and had a great time. Of course, now, if my daughter had the same idea, I think I'd fall down dead on the spot.
But you didn't stay till the end?
The scholarship lasted three months. I was marketing fax machines, and I came home a few weeks early. I'm a fairly restless person, and I was getting a little bored of my comfortable life out there.
Why? Was it so boring? How many fax machines did you sell?
I didn't sell a single one. I was the only European on the team, people would sit me down kindly, ask me lots of questions, who on earth was I, and so on. And so we never got to talk business.
Oh, it's clear that you were keener on macroeconomics, then. But recently you've had lots of detailed political work to do. Like when you ambushed the two Fidesz MPs, Répássy and Szijjártó, who were holding a press conference in front of your house. Was that a planned piece of political theatre - with your daughter on your arm?
Obviously they didn't inform us of their plans in advance. But when there's a ruckus in front of your house, you have to decide - am I going to stay inside, or shall I stick to the promise I'd already made to my child? I think I did the only thing I could do.
Certainly. But you never thought of getting involved yourself? We almost had a female president - what about Madam Prime Minister?
I'm very interested in politics and public affairs, but I always wanted a professional career. I don't think being a politician is the only worthwhile goal in life. I've no particular desire to be a spine surgeon, although there aren't many of those in the country either.

ANDRÁS LINDNER - ZOLTÁN HORVÁTH