Ildikó Lendvai (born 20 July 1946) is a Hungarian politician, who served as the leader of the

Hungarian Socialist Party The Hungarian Socialist Party ( hu, Magyar Szocialista Párt), commonly known by its acronym MSZP, is a centre-left social-democratic and pro-European political party in Hungary. It was founded on 7 October, 1989 as a post-communist evolution a ...

(MSZP) between 5 April 2009 and 10 July 2010.

Biography

Ildikó Lendvai was born in

Debrecen Debrecen ( , is Hungary's second-largest city, after Budapest, the regional centre of the Northern Great Plain region and the seat of Hajdú-Bihar County. A city with county rights, it was the largest Hungarian city in the 18th century and i ...

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...

on 20 July 1946. She spent her childhood in

Nagykanizsa Nagykanizsa (; hr, Velika Kaniža/Velika Kanjiža, or just ''Kaniža/Kanjiža''; german: Großkirchen, Groß-Kanizsa; it, Canissa; sl, Velika Kaniža; tr, Kanije), known colloquially as Kanizsa, is a medium-sized city in Zala County in southw ...

, Pécs and Szolnok, following the movement of the family due to different jobs taken by her father. She was five when the family moved to

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

, she graduated from Varga Katalin High School there in 1964. She received a teacher's degree majoring in History and Hungarian from ELTE university in 1972 she added philosophy in 1974. Between 1969 and 1972, she was a teacher at Móra Ferenc High School and she taught from 1974 at Keszthely University of Agriculture at the philosophy department. In 1974 she became a member of Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party (MSZMP) and started working at the cultural department of the Hungarian Young Communist League (KISZ). Then from 1984 started working for the Central Committee of the party again handling cultural matters. After rising through the ranks and becoming deputy department chief she limited the possibility for publication for works and writers considered dangerous by the party and allegedly took a part in the banning of the "Tiszatáj" a literary magazine in 1986. What can be certainly determined is that she worked as a censor in that capacity for

György Aczél György Aczél (born Henrik Appel; 31 August 1917 – 6 December 1991) was a Hungarian communist politician. He became a member of the then illegal Hungarian Communist Party in 1935, and was a founding member of the ''Political Committee (''Hu ...

.Lendvai: háttéralkukkal a csúcsra

Index Index (or its plural form indices) may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional entities * Index (''A Certain Magical Index''), a character in the light novel series ''A Certain Magical Index'' * The Index, an item on a Halo megastru ...

, 2009. április 5. She was a member of the Hungarian Parliament from the 1994 parliamentary election until 2014, when she retired from politics. Since 2002, she was leader of the socialist parliamentary group. Before her election as party leader she requested that the party be led by a three-member executive committee and that Attila Mesterházy is to succeed her as the leader of the socialist faction in parliament.Socialists formally tap Bajnai for PM, Lendvai for party chief
/ref> Lendvai led the party into the 2009 European Parliament election in June. She resigned from her position after the worst defeat of 2010 elections. The party congress elected Attila Mesterházy to her successor on 10 July 2010.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lendvai, Ildiko 1946 births Living people Women members of the National Assembly of Hungary Hungarian Socialist Party politicians Members of the National Assembly of Hungary (1994–1998) Members of the National Assembly of Hungary (1998–2002) Members of the National Assembly of Hungary (2002–2006) Members of the National Assembly of Hungary (2006–2010) Members of the National Assembly of Hungary (2010–2014) People from Debrecen 20th-century Hungarian women politicians 21st-century Hungarian women politicians