Каталин Сили: политический путь и биография

Hungarian politician (born 1956)

Katalin Szili (born 13 May 1956) is a Hungarian politician and jurist, a former Member of the National Assembly, who served as Speaker of the National Assembly from 2002 to 2009. Following an administrative career in the Hungarian People's Republic, she was a long time member of the left wing Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP). She was Member of Parliament (MP) from 1994 to 2014, and was considered a leading politician of her party for a decade. After the 2014 election, she gradually became a proponent of the right wing Fidesz government, voicing nationalist and anti immigrant slogans.

Katalin Szili was born into a family of bourgeois origin on 13 May 1956 in Barcs, Somogy County. Her maternal grandparents were ethnic Austrians. The family lost all their property during World War II, and her grandfather was killed in the Battle of Budapest in February 1945. Her father György Szili (1935–1987) worked as a commercial lecturer and her mother Anna Barakonyi (b. 1937) as an accountant. At the age of twelve, Katalin Szili lost her left hand as a result of an accident, when a grenade exploded in her hand. For this reason she wears shawls to cover her hands or pockets it in public. On ceremonial occasions, she usually wears an artificial hand that matches the color of her skin. She attended elementary school in Barcs and Pécs. She finished her secondary studies at the Nagy Lajos Secondary Grammar School of Pécs in 1974. She obtained a doctorate in law at the Janus Pannonius University in 1981. She passed the bar examination in 1985. She graduated from the Department of Human Ecology of the Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE) between 1990 and 1992, and also earned a degree in political science in Pécs in 2001. She married architect Miklós Molnár in 1977. she held the position until 2005. She became an honorary associate professor at the University of Pécs in 2008.

Szili joined the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party (MSZMP) in 1983. She became a founding member of its legal successor, the Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP) on 15 November 1989, and participated in the establishment of its local branch in Pécs. She ran as a candidate in the 1990 parliamentary election in Pécs (Constituency II, Baranya County), and finished third in the second round, while András Pap (MDF) obtained the mandate. She was elected to the municipal assembly of Pécs during a by election in 1992. At that time she was also a member of the Council of the National Technical Development Committee (OMFB). She was elected chairperson of the local branch of her party in Pécs in 1997. A year later, she became president of the party's national women section. Szili was re elected MP for Pécs (Constituency II) in the 1998, 2002 and 2006 parliamentary elections. She served as Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly between 1998 and 2002. Following the 2002 parliamentary election, Szili was elected Speaker of the National Assembly, becoming the second woman, who held the office. She was re elected as Speaker in 2006. She came to be considered inner opposition inside the MSZP since 2009 (some considered she had prominent role in the leakage of the Őszöd speech three years earlier). In 2009 Szili resigned from her position as speaker of Parliament, She was succeeded by Béla Katona of MSZP. 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.

Following the 2014 national election, Szili gradually switched to Fidesz, and became a vocational supporter of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who retained his two third majority in the Hungarian parliament. Upon the request of Deputy Prime Minister Zsolt Semjén, she was appointed Prime Ministerial Commissioner on 1 March 2015. Her task covers "coordination tasks related to the aspirations of autonomy in the Carpathian Basin and the concepts of autonomy of social, political and non governmental organizations, in cooperation with the State Secretariat for National Policy of the Prime Minister's Office, and liaison with European Union and international organizations." She voted "no" in the 2016 migrant quota referendum, because she "supports the long term protection of the entire European Judeo Christian cultural community". In a 2017 interview, she denied allegations that she had negotiated with Fidesz, betrayed the left, or that she would be a socialist "decorative finch" for Fidesz, stating she was doing important work for the nation, not a member of the MSZP since 2010, and she is criticized by those who have a "bad conscience" in national affairs (regarding the 2004 dual citizenship referendum). She explained the failures of her later small parties (SZU, KTI) by a lack of financial means. Szili actively campaigned for Fidesz during the 2018 parliamentary election. Szili stated just before the 2019 European Parliament election that the election will be a "struggle between supporters and opponents of migration", quoting the words of Viktor Orbán. In order to remain a member of the board of trustees of the University of Pécs, she resigned as Prime Ministerial Commissioner in February 2023. However, soon, she was appointed chief advisor to the Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, which raised the issue of evasion of conflict of interest legislation. She joined the Christian Democratic People's Party (KDNP), the coalition partner of the ruling Fidesz, on 31 March 2023.