Law Professor Becomes President

Ferenc Madl, a conservative law professor who once taught at UC Berkeley, was inaugurated as Hungary’s second president since the fall of communism. Madl, elected by parliament in June, succeeded Arpad Goncz, who had served the maximum two terms in the largely ceremonial post. Madl was a power broker who helped develop the right-wing coalition that ousted a Socialist-led government in 1998. In his address, he said Hungary needed to take care of the poor and improve educational opportunity. Madl was minister of culture and education in the Cabinet of Prime Minister Jozsef Antall after the collapse of the Soviet-backed Communist government in 1990.