Katalin Szili

Katalin Szili
Speaker of the National Assembly
In office 15 May 2002 – 14 September 2009
Preceded by	János Áder
Succeeded by	Béla Katona
Personal details
Born	13 May 1956 Barcs, Hungary
Political party	MSZMP, MSZP, SZU, KTI
Children	2
Profession	politician, jurist

Katalin Szili (born May 13, 1956 in Barcs, Hungary) is a former member of the Hungarian Parliament, who served as the Speaker of the National Assembly of Hungary from 2002 to 2009.

Political career

MSZP

After obtaining a degree in law at Janus Pannonius University, she completed majors in human ecology and political science. She was a legislator from 1994 to 2014. Between 1994 and 1998 she was the political secretary of the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Water. Between 1998 and 2002 she served as Deputy Speaker of the Hungarian National Assembly.

She was the candidate of the Hungarian Socialist Party for presidency in the 2005 Hungarian presidential elections. Szili lost the election on June 7, 2005 to opposition nominee László Sólyom. The Hungarian Constitution prescribes that the President must be elected by the National Assembly of Hungary, thus the victory of the opposition came as something of a surprise. The junior coalition party, the Alliance of Free Democrats (SZDSZ), however, had long emphasized that it would not vote for a partisan President. Szili as a high-ranking member of the Socialist party was considered partisan, the SZDSZ abstained, enabling the more neutral candidate Sólyom (who was originally nominated by a non-governmental organization Védegylet and later supported by the opposition), to win the office. Another reason for the failed nomination was that SZDSZ was not consulted ahead of time and Szili lacked qualifications compared to Sólyom who previously held high office as the president of the Constitutional Court of Hungary. In 2009 Szili was the mayoral candidate of MSZP for the mayor of a major Hungarian city, Pécs. She lost the election to Zsolt Páva.^[1]

She became to be considered inner opposition inside the MSZP since 2009. In 2009 Szili resigned from her position as speaker of Parliament, She was succeeded by Béla Katona of MSZP.^[2] She formed the Movement of Alliance for the Future in 2010 and had her own candidates in some areas in the 2010 Hungarian parliamentary election. Szili was elected to the Parliament of Hungary via the Baranya County Party list where she was chairperson of the local MSZP branch.

Independent MP

After the 2010 local elections, held on October 3, she founded the Social Union (SZU) and became its first chairperson. As a result, she quit the Hungarian Socialist Party and their parliamentary group, continuing her parliamentary work as a formally independent MP.^[3] However, as an elected parliamentarian she is serving a four-year term ending in 2014. Thus the new party Social Union instantly has some representation in Parliament, which is usually not possible for parties having won less than 5% of votes.

In 2011, Szili became a member of the Nemzeti Konzultációs Testület (National Consultative body)^[4] preparing the new constitution. Later, she presented her own proposal.^[5] Szili was appointed Chairperson of the Committee on Sustainable Development on 25 February 2013.

On October 17, 2013, Katalin Szili and her party, the Social Union (SZU) entered into an alliance with 11 other parties and civil groups (including Centre Party) and established Community for Social Justice People's Party (KTI).^[6] Her new party did not reach the 5% threshold contrary in the 2014 election, as a result she lost her parliamentary seat after 20 years.

References

1. Nagy győzelmet aratott Páva Zsolt
2. Katona Béla váltja Szilit az Országgyűlés élén
3. Szili Katalin kilépett az MSZP-frakcióból
4. Létrejött a nemzeti konzultációs testület
5. Szili Katalin-tervezet: A Magyar Köztársaság Alkotmánya
6. "Ex-Socialist speaker of parliament forms Community for Social Justice party". 17 October 2013. Retrieved 30 January 2014.