Dr. István Ujhelyi (born 28 February 1975) is a Hungarian

politician A politician is a person who participates in Public policy, policy-making processes, usually holding an elective position in government. Politicians represent the people, make decisions, and influence the formulation of public policy. The roles ...

from the

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

, who was MP in the

National Assembly of Hungary The National Assembly ( ) is the parliament of Hungary. The unicameral body consists of 199 (386 between 1990 and 2014) members elected to four-year terms. Election of members is done using a semi-proportional representation: a mixed-member m ...

between 2002 and 2014. He served as a

Member of the European Parliament A member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been Election, elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the European Coal and S ...

(MEP) from 2014 to 2024.

Life

Ujhelyi finished Tóth Árpád Grammar School in

Debrecen Debrecen ( ; ; ; ) is Hungary's cities of Hungary, second-largest city, after Budapest, the regional centre of the Northern Great Plain Regions of Hungary, region and the seat of Hajdú-Bihar County. A city with county rights, it was the large ...

in 1993. He graduated from the Faculty of Law and Political Sciences of the

University of Szeged The University of Szeged () is a Public university, public research university in Szeged, Hungary. Established as the Jesuit Academy of Kolozsvár in present-day Cluj-Napoca in 1581, the institution was re-established as a university in 1872 by ...

in 2002. He went on a political study tour to

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

as a scholarship-holder of the

Council of Europe The Council of Europe (CoE; , CdE) is an international organisation with the goal of upholding human rights, democracy and the Law in Europe, rule of law in Europe. Founded in 1949, it is Europe's oldest intergovernmental organisation, represe ...

and to

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

, on an American scholarship. He was delegated by the youth organizations to the board of trustees of the Hungarian Television Public Foundation and later of the Hungarian Radio Public Foundation. Also in 1999, he was elected a member of the governing body of the Hungarian UN Society.

Political career

Ujhelyi joined the Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP) in 1993. He was national vice-president of the Left-wing Youth Association from 1995; when the Association changed its name to Young Left-wing in 1999, he remained national vice-president, and has been national president since 2002. He was confirmed in his presidency in February 2004. He was elected president of the local branch of the party, and served as vice-president of its

Csongrád County Csongrád (; , archaically also ''Црноград/Crnograd,'' ) is a town in Csongrád County in southern Hungary. History At the time of the Hungarian Conquest (the end of 9th century) the Maros Valley was under Bulgarian control. The fortre ...

organization from 1998 to 2000. He has been president of the Youth Section of the Socialist Party since 1996, as well as a member of the National Board and, since November 2002, of the national presidium of the party. In 2003 he was elected again to the Socialist Party's most important body, the national presidium. He was elected a representative of the Szeged City Assembly in both the 1994 and 1998 local elections. From 16 October 2004 he was national vice-president and the youngest member of the presidium.

Member of the National Assembly, 2002–2014

Ujhelyi first ran in the 1998 parliamentary elections. He later secured a mandate in the 2002 parliamentary election for

Szeged Szeged ( , ; see also #Etymology, other alternative names) is List of cities and towns of Hungary#Largest cities in Hungary, the third largest city of Hungary, the largest city and regional centre of the Southern Great Plain and the county seat ...

, Csongrád County Constituency I. He was an alternate member of the Hungarian delegation to the

NATO Parliamentary Assembly The NATO Parliamentary Assembly serves as the consultative interparliamentary organisation for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). It consists of delegates from the parliaments of the 32 NATO member countries as well as from associate ...

. From 2004 he served as a governmental commissioner for Child and Youth Affairs. In the parliamentary election in 2006 he obtained an individual mandate for Szeged. He was the State Secretary of the Ministry for Local Government and Regional Development between 1 July 2006 and 14 May 2008. After that he served as State Secretary of Prime Minister's Office from 21 April 2009 to 29 May 2010 in the

Cabinet of Gordon Bajnai The government of Gordon Bajnai was the government of Hungary between 14 April 2009 and 29 May 2010. Gordon Bajnai formed a minority government after the resignation of Ferenc Gyurcsány. The cabinet was supported externally by the parliamentary g ...

. In the 2010 national election Ujhelyi was elected to the

again from the party's national list. His party nominated him for the position of one of the deputy speakers of the National Assembly of Hungary.

Member of the European Parliament, 2014–2024

Ujhelyi was elected as a

in the May 2014 European Parliament election. He has since been serving as vice chairman of the

Committee on Transport and Tourism A committee or commission is a body of one or more persons subordinate to a deliberative assembly or other form of organization. A committee may not itself be considered to be a form of assembly or a decision-making body. Usually, an assembly o ...

under the leadership of chairman Michael Cramer and later

Karima Delli Karima Delli (born 4 March 1979 in Roubaix, Nord) is a French politician and Member of the European Parliament elected in the 2009 European election, 2014 European elections and in the 2019 European elections for the Île-de-France constitu ...

. In addition to his committee assignment, Ujhelyi is a substitute member of the parliament's delegation for relations with the

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

, Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety and Subcommittee on Public Health. He is also a member of the European Internet Forum. Following the

2022 Hungarian parliamentary election Parliamentary elections were held in Hungary on 3 April 2022 to elect the National Assembly, coinciding with a referendum. Hungary's incumbent prime minister Viktor Orbán won re-election to a fourth term. Addressing his supporters after the pa ...

, In April 2022, Ujhelyi showed interest in running for MSZP leadership and he proposed a new name "Opportunity – Party Community of Hungarian Social Democrats" (). On 2 October 2022, Ujhelyi announced that he is leaving the Hungarian Socialist Party, criticizing "MSZP's lack of vision". The party demanded he return his parliamentary seat. Shortly before he left the party, Ujhelyi founded ''Esély Közösség'', a community for social democrats, which transformed itself into a party after Ujhelyi's quit from MSZP. In September 2022, Ujhelyi was the recipient of the Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Award at ''

The Parliament Magazine ''The Parliament Magazine'' is a monthly EU politics, policy and culture magazine. Its website, www.theparliamentmagazine.eu, is a forum for discussion on the latest developments in EU politics and policy, featuring regular contributions from pr ...

s annual MEP Awards. In June 2023, Ujhelyi announced he would end his career as an MEP and not run in the 2024 Parliament election. Ujhelyi was appointed ambassador of the

UN Tourism The United Nations World Tourism Organization or UN Tourism (formerly UNWTO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations which promotes responsible, sustainable and universally-accessible tourism. Its headquarters are in Madrid, Spain. Othe ...

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

in June 2024.

References

External links

Biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ujhelyi, Istvan 1975 births Living people Hungarian Socialist Party politicians 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 Berettyóújfalu MEPs for Hungary 2014–2019 MEPs for Hungary 2019–2024