This EU country is now the only one without a single female minister

Hungary this week became the only country in the European Union without a female minister as Judit Varga officially stepped down on Monday evening.

Varga, who announced her resignation in late June to lead the ruling Fidesz party’s campaign for the June 2024 EU parliamentary election, has been serving as justice minister since 2019.

She is to be replaced by Bence Tuzson, meaning Hungary’s 14 ministerial positions are now all held by men.

Euronews looked at the composition of the 27 EU governments as of 1 August and found that just over 33% of ministerial positions across the union are held by women.

When excluding prime ministers (unless they are not the head of state), deputy ministers and state secretaries, Finland has the highest tally with two-thirds of the new right-wing cabinet female.

Five other member states have 50% or more women at the helm of ministries. These are the Netherlands, Spain, Belgium, Portugal and Austria.

The composition of the Dutch and Spanish governments is soon expected to change however. A snap election is to be held in the Netherlands in November following the collapse last month of Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s government. Inconclusive elections in Spain in late July are meanwhile expected to lead to weeks of political deadlock as both the right-wing People’s Party (PP) and the incumbent Socialist Party attempt to find coalition partners.

Countries close to parity include Sweden, Germany and France.

Meanwhile, Malta, the Czech Republic and Poland have less than 15% of female ministers and are therefore at the bottom of the ranking with Hungary.