Boross' proposal, Antall was awarded Grand Cross of the Hungarian Order of Merit by President Árpád Göncz on 11 December 1993. Prime Minister (1993–1994) Immediately after József Antall's death, Boross became acting Prime Minister of Hungary on 12 December 1993. On the following day, the Hungarian Democratic Forum's national board and the parliamentary group jointly convened, where three candidates, Péter Boross, Iván Szabó and Lajos Für ran for the position of prime minister. In the first round, Boross received 89 votes and came to the first place, defeating Szabó (79 votes) and Für (62 votes). In the second round, Boross gained a two-thirds support against Szabó and was nominated the party's designated premier. On 21 December 1993, the National Assembly elected Boross as Prime Minister by a vote of 201–152, with 5 abstentions. The parliamentary group leader Imre Kónya succeeded him as Minister of Interior but apart from that the personal composition of the government remained unchanged, as a result journalistic and academic works often refer to the MDF government between 1990 and 1994 as the "Antall–Boross cabinet". In January 1994, Boross met with leaders of the Central-European post-communist countries in Prague, reflecting the 1994 Brussels summit where the United States expressed its intention to enlarge the NATO intergovernmental military alliance. Before the 1994 election, Viktor Chernomyrdin, the Prime Minister of Russia visited Budapest to discuss the issue of debt settlement. Boross also asked Chernomyrdin to talk with Slobodan Milošević for the interests of the Hungarians in Serbia during the Yugoslav Wars. In February 1994, Boross visited France where he held talks with President François Mitterrand and Prime Minister Édouard Balladur. In March 1994, he visited German Chancellor Helmut Kohl in Bonn. Gyula Horn led the Socialists to a comprehensive victory in the 1994 parliamentary election. Although the MSZP had more than enough seats to govern alone, Horn wanted to allay concerns both inside and outside Hungary of a former Communist party winning an absolute majority. With this in mind, he went into coalition with the liberal and previously strong anti-communist Alliance of Free Democrats (SZDSZ), giving him a two-thirds majority. Boross was succeeded by Gyula Horn as Prime Minister of Hungary in July 1994. After premiership (1994–2010) At the 1994 parliamentary election, the MDF was severely defeated, falling from 165 seats to 38 for third place. Boross was elected Member of Parliament from his party's Budapest Regional List. He