BUDAPEST, Sept 29 (AFP) - Socialist Ferenc Gyurcsany, a former communist youth leader turned millionaire businessman, was elected prime minister of Hungary on Wednesday after parliament approved his nomination by a narrow margin.
Gyurcsany's appointment was made possible by the slim majority held in parliament by his ruling Socialist Party and its liberal coalition partner, the Free Democrats.
He won the support of 197 of the 384 members of parliament. The conservative opposition abstained en masse, with 175 MPs not casting a vote. Twelve MPs voted against Gyurcsany.
Gyurcsany took his oath of office immediately after the vote.
The 43-year-old former sports minister assumed the nation's top job one month after the governing coalition's former leader, Peter Medgyessy, resigned after losing the support of the Free Democrats.
Medgyessy became the first Hungarian premier to resign since the former communist country's transition to democracy in 1989.