Voting Station

Laszlo Tokes

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Religious Figure

The Resume

    (April 1, 1952- )
    Born in Cluj, Romania
    Assistant pastor in Timisoara, Romania
    Refused when the government tried to send him to the isolated parish of Mineu (1989)
    Attempts to forcibly evict him led parishioners to form a human chain around his church (December 15, 1989)
    Soldiers fired into the crowd, killing demonstrators (December 18, 1989)
    News of the protests and violent crackdown spread throughout Romania, triggering the revolt that overthrew the regime of Nicolae Ceausescu
    Elected Bishop of the Kiralyhagomellek District of the Reformed Church in Romania (1990)
    Elected to the European Parliament (2007)
    Vice-President of the European Parliament (2010-12)

Why he might be annoying:

    He had to live with his parents in the mid-1980s when he was suspended from preaching.
    His wife Edit sued for divorce (2010), accusing him of numerous affairs; the claims of infidelity were supported by one of his former advisors.
    He reportedly called his wife ‘a dumb and primitive peasant’ while talking with friends.
    His name could double as the headline if he ever gets busted for using marijuana.

Why he might not be annoying:

    He was an outspoken opponent of the Ceausescu regime, particularly its suppression of ethnic minorities and its destruction of villages and forced relocation of their residents.
    As part of its harassment campaign, the government would disconnect his telephone, restore service long enough to phone in death threats, then bill him for the calls.
    During the effort to evict him, masked thugs armed with knifes broke into his apartment. He, his wife and two friends fought them off using bottles, chairs and anything else at hand (November 2, 1989)
    Hungarian academic Gyorgy Schopflin said, ‘[He] demonstrated to the wider public in Romania that it is possible to stand up against the Ceausescu regime.’
    He said of his dissent, ‘The education I had in my family was to resist Satan and stand up to injustice.’

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 3 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 7 Votes: 28.57% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 10 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 13 Votes: 38.46% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 3 Votes: 33.33% Annoying