János Áder

János Áder (; born 9 May 1959) is a Hungarian politician and lawyer who served as President of Hungary from 2012 to 2022. He is a long-time politician of the right-wing Fidesz. As a representative of his party, he took part in the Hungarian Round Table Talks during the end of communism in Hungary in 1989. He was a member of the National Assembly of Hungary from 1990 to 2009 and served as its speaker from 1998 to 2002. He temporarily presided the Fidesz between 2002 and 2003. He served as leader of the Fidesz parliamentary group between 2002 and 2006.

Áder was elected a MEP during the 2009 European Parliament election. He functioned as Deputy Chairman of the European Parliament Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety from January to May 2012. Áder became President of Hungary, after his predecessor Pál Schmitt resigned due to a plagiarism controversy. Since Árpád Göncz, János Áder was the first head of state, who was re-elected and able to complete two terms. He was ineligible to run for a third term. He was succeeded by fellow Fidesz politician Katalin Novák.

Life and career

János Áder was born into a Roman Catholic family in the small town of Csorna in Győr-Moson-Sopron County, the son of shop assistant János Áder, Sr. (1932–1980) and accountant Terézia Szabó (b. 1936), who worked for the local hospital and retired from there as deputy director for financial affairs. Áder grew up in his hometown and completed his elementary studies there.Verseck, Keno. "Close Orban Ally is Hungary's New President." MSN News. 2 May 2012.
Accessed 2012-05-05. Beginning in 1978, he studied law for five years at the faculty of Law and Political Sciences at Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest."János ÁDER." Members of the European Parliament. European Parliament. No date.
Accessed 2012-05-05. From 1986 to 1990, he was a research fellow at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences' Sociological Research Institute.

By the late 1980s, Áder had joined"Alapító atya-e Áder János?"
Magyar Narancs. 17 April 2012. Accessed 2013-02-15. the nascent Fidesz, a liberal-democratic party at the time,"Hungary: Janos Ader Replaces Pal Schmitt as President."
BBC.co.uk. 2 May 2012. Accessed 2012-05-04. serving as a party legal expert. He became a member of the Opposition Round Table talks that negotiated an end to single-party rule in Hungary in 1989.Hodgson, Robert. "Áder a Shoe-In for President." ''Budapest Times.'' 20 April 2012.
Accessed 2012-05-04.

Áder began his national political career during this transition to democracy, serving as the leader of Fidesz's national campaigns during the 1990 and 1994 parliamentary elections and as an MP from 1990 to 2009. During his twelve-year parliamentary tenure Áder served in a variety of leadership roles. From 9 September 1997 to 17 June 1998 he served as Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly, and, during the first Orbán government (18 June 1998 – 15 May 2002), as Speaker of the National Assembly. With Fidesz in opposition after the 2002 election, Áder led the Fidesz caucus opposition.

MEP

Áder ran successfully as a candidate during the 2009 European-parliamentary election and consequently resigned from the Hungarian parliament. On 23 January 2012, he was elected a deputy chairman of the European Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety. In 2011, following Fidesz's supermajority victory at the Hungarian polls one year earlier, Áder helped draft legislation modifying Hungary's judiciary and electoral laws; the former was challenged (but upheld) before the European Court of Justice.

President

First term

On 16 April 2012, Áder was selected by the majority of the parliament, and became the new President of Hungary after the resignation of Pál Schmitt. He was elected on 2 May to a five-year term by a vote of 262–40,Kuli, Alex. "Hungary Elects Orban Ally as New President." ''Associated Press.'' 2 May 2012. and assumed office on 10 May 2012. He is consequently the first president to hold that office since the new Hungarian constitution took effect on 1 January 2012.

János Áder met Shimon Peres at a working dinner in Jerusalem on 15 July 2012, and invited the Israeli President for an official visit to Hungary. Áder told that their conversation had focused on deepening scientific cooperation between the two countries, in which Hungary could benefit from Israel's experience in areas such as farming and water management. On 16 July, he told a commemoration of Raoul Wallenberg in the Knesset, that The Holocaust is "the tragedy of mankind without parallel". He said the rise of anti-Semitism in several countries in Europe had been discussed, he said, "adding that steps against such phenomena must be taken together".

Later, The Simon Wiesenthal Centre asked Áder in an open letter sent to MTI to help bring alleged Nazi war criminal László Csizsik-Csatáry to justice "as quickly as possible".

Áder said Hungary's new constitution guarantees constitutional rights and catered for fourth generation human rights in his address of the 67th session of the UN General Assembly in New York City on 25 September 2012. These include Article P, which states that "natural resources, especially the farmland, forests and the drinking water supplies, the biodiversity – in particular native plant and animal species – and the cultural assets shall form part of the nation's common heritage; the State and every person shall be obliged to protect, sustain and preserve them for future generations". He mentioned especially the water supply, and how short-sighted and irrational it was the way "we pollute our waters". Áder also told Hungary has taken active part in the work of the UN's Friends of Water working group. Hungary hosted a conference on water and sanitation in Budapest in 2013.

He sent the election procedures bill to the Constitutional Court for preliminary legal review on 6 December 2012. He stressed in a statement that the bill passed by Parliament on 26 November guarantees free and democratic elections. On 3 January 2013, the Court ruled that the law curtailed voting rights to an unjustifiable degree, due to the fact that the requirement for voters to register prior to going to the polls applies to every voter. As a result, Antal Rogán announced the government will not introduce voter pre-registration in the 2014 parliamentary election.

On 13 March 2013, Áder said he would sign the controversial fourth amendment to Hungary's constitution. He stated that he had made his decision in view of his promise that as President of Hungary he would carry out the responsibilities conferred on him by the constitution without fail. "It is my unequivocal constitutional duty to sign and declare this constitutional amendment as law. This is regardless of whose tastes the changes meet and regardless of whether I like it or not", he said. Áder read letters, messages and the "clever and sometimes indignant and politically-charged arguments of experts". "I was guided by the single goal which is in harmony with my presidential oath: to represent the constitutional order and the unity of the nation," he said. Accordingly, Áder signed the constitutional amendment on 25 March 2013.

In June 2013, Áder apologised in the national parliament of Serbia for Hungarians' war crimes against civilian Serbs in Vojvodina in the Second World War. Some days earlier the Serbian lawmakers adopted a declaration, which condemned the massacre in Vojvodina in 1944-45 and resolutions made under the principle of collective guilt during the war. Áder said "although nobody can undo those crimes, we still believe that forgiveness following a mutual apology can point beyond reconciliation. Because we, Hungarians of today, and Serbs of today, stand united as one on the side of the innocent victims. The legacy we want to pass on to our children is that of life, justice and cooperation, and not that of death, untruth and hatred".

Continuing his efforts in the European Parliament, Áder emphasized the importance of environmental protection and the fight against global warming. In January 2015, he announced the establishment of an Environmental Sustainability Directorate within the President's Office. Csaba Kőrösi

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