László Gajdos, the head of the Nyíregyházi Zoo nominates him as the minister responsible for the living environment Future Prime Minister Péter Magyar. Under the Fidesz government, there was no independent ministry of environmental protection, and the Tisza government would now restore this previous practice.
It was expected that Gajdos would receive some government position, but in December he himself talked about itthat Péter Magyar asked him for animal protection and animal welfare tasks in the future Ministry of Environmental Protection. Magyar also promised Gajdos HUF 10 billion for an animal shelter and sterilization program.
The 63-year-old Gajdos was not a bad athlete in his youth, he was a member of the youth and youth weightlifting teams. After graduating from the agricultural college in Kaposvár, he returned to Nyíregyháza, where he initially worked as a clerk, then worked as a media worker.
In 1996, he was appointed the director of the Cultural Park in Sósto, and based on that, he created the Nyíregyházi Zoo, of which he has been the director ever since. He built the institution almost from scratch, he went around the zoos of Europe to somehow populate his own, and in many places he received redundant or old specimens. They started small, in the beginning, for example, a lion was placed in the zoo’s unused toilet, but they quickly grew, and today Sósto has the most mammals among domestic zoos. The Zoo has won the title of the best zoo in Europe three times (2015, 2018, 2021) in the category of under 500,000 visitors per year.
Gajdos has been the leader of the Association of Hungarian Zoos and Aquariums for five years, is an honorary citizen of Nyíregyháza, and is the recipient of numerous prestigious awards, including the county Príma award and the Fehér Rózsa award. He was also selected as one of the 50 leading experts in Hungarian tourism, and with his team he mentored several tourist attractions across the border. In recognition of his work, he received the Hungarian Bronze Cross of Merit in 2024.
The director of the zoo has been approached several times to take on some kind of political role. In 2006, for example, the Hungarian Socialist Party tried to convince him to run for the post of mayor of Nyíregyháza, but he said no, and every cycle since 2010 he has been approached for the same position, but he has also rejected these invitations. In an interview with Magyar Hang he said that he only accepted the invitation of the Tisza Party for the seventh time, because he felt that they insisted on his personality and professional knowledge. In the parliamentary election, he then won district 1 in Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg county with a large margin, nearly 65 percent. Gajdos confesses that he loves Nyíregyháza fiercely, and that he has always had many plans for the development of the city, he used to say that he would not die until after 1969 there were no trams in the city again.
In the campaign, the propaganda press tried to present Gajdos as a leftist, while he talked about how he was on good terms with the Fidesz leaders of the region, for example the former member of parliament Tünde Szabó and the mayor of Nyíregyháza, Ferenc Kovács, but he also said that András Polgári, who was launched against him, was a good friend of his and, in his opinion, had nothing to do with the fact that he was in the local press Gajdos was compared to molluscs. Our Common Cause, established by the Fidesz government, is also a member of the Animal Protection Foundation. The foundation helped shelters to get money, and they also started informational programs about responsible animal husbandry.
The future minister previously said that the Ministry of Environment should deal with two colors, green and blue, the former representing vegetation and the latter representing air and water. At the beginning of the campaign, he spoke mainly about animal welfare issues, while Szabolcs Bóna, who is now the candidate for the Minister of Agriculture and Food Affairs, exposed himself more in water management and other environmental protection matters.
In an interview, Gajdos spoke about the need to review the legislation on animal cruelty and that in some cases stricter punishments would be necessary. It would launch awareness-raising and educational programs, raise awareness that animals are sentient and thinking beings, and consider it important that no child grows up without a pet. He also spoke about the zoos, in his opinion, the other zoos owned by local governments should be developed as well.
László Gajdos, the director of the Nyíregyházi Zoo, shows one of the four-week-old male Sumatran tiger cubs in the Viktória Háza of the Nyíregyházi Zoo on January 7, 2025 – Photo: Attila Balázs / MTI
As the elections approached, Gajdos’s spectrum became wider, announced the Clean Hungary programin which the main tasks and promises of the future Ministry of Environmental Protection were described. He said that compliance with environmental regulations will be strictly controlled, polluters will be sanctioned quickly and efficiently, and they want to do the same for illegal garbage dumps. The money collected from fines imposed on polluters is used directly for environmental restoration. He announced that an independent body would be created to monitor investments in heavily polluting industries, particularly battery industry investments, and that already issued permits would be reviewed.
Gajdos wrotethat they apply zero tolerance to illegal installations in protected and Natura 2000 areas. He promised to restore the independent authority system, create professional independence and clear responsibility relationships. According to his program, his portfolio will also include water management, and they will want to increase the water retention capacity of the landscape and the groundwater level.
