Péter Kónya (born 19 February 1969) is a Hungarian soldier, journalist, trade unionist and politician, who was a Member of Parliament (MP) from 2014 to 2018. As leader of the

Hungarian Solidarity Movement The Hungarian Solidarity Movement (SOLIDARITY) ( hu, Magyar Szolidaritás Mozgalom, SZOLIDARITÁS) is an independent political movement in Hungary, which was founded in 2011, against the Cabinet of Orbán. The movement's leader is Péter Kónya. ...

, he was a founding member of the Together party until he quit in October 2015.

Biography

Kónya was born in Miskolc on 19 February 1969. He finished his secondary studies at the I. István Secondary Grammar School in

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 ...

in 1987. He attended the Lviv Polytechnic State University in the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

, then

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

from 1987 to 1991 and from 1993 to 1994, where he earned a degree of military journalist in 1994. Simultaneously, he finished the school of the Association of Hungarian Journalists (MÚOSZ) in 1992. He was a career soldier since 1987, he was inaugurated army officer in 1991; he attended the battalion command course of the Lajos Kossuth Military College in 1992. During his disarmament in 2012, he was a lieutenant-colonel. He edited military weekly ''Magyar Honvéd'' between 1994 and 1998. He was elected president of the Trade Union Association of Military and Police Employees (''Fegyveres és Rendvédelmi Dolgozók Érdekvédelmi Szövetsége'', FRDÉSZ) in 1998. He also served as co-president of the

Democratic Confederation of Free Trade Unions The Democratic Confederation of Free Trade Unions (LIGA) in a national trade union center in Hungary. It was founded in 1989. LIGA is affiliated with the International Trade Union Confederation and the European Trade Union Confederation The ...

(Liga) from 2005 to 2008. Under his presidency, the FRDÉSZ strongly opposed the amendment of the work code, the termination of private pension system and the revision of the military life model by the

Second Orbán Government The second government of Viktor Orbán or the Government of National Cooperation (in Hungarian language, Hungarian: ''A Nemzeti Együttműködés Kormánya'') was the Government of Hungary from 29 May 2010 to 6 June 2014. Orbán formed his second ...

since 2010. Kónya resigned from that position on 1 December 2011, when entered political sphere. Kónya was a founding member and inaugural president of the

(Solidarity) in October 2011. It was a social and trade union movement, based on the Polish

Solidarity ''Solidarity'' is an awareness of shared interests, objectives, standards, and sympathies creating a psychological sense of unity of groups or classes. It is based on class collaboration.''Merriam Webster'', http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictio ...

. When former prime minister Gordon Bajnai announced his return to politics on 23 October 2012, during the anti-government demonstration of the One Million for Press Freedom (Milla), the Solidarity also supported his efforts and joined his electoral cooperation named Together 2014. The movement transformed itself into party on 8 March 2013, as only parties could take part in the upcoming election according to the rules. Three co-presidents were elected:

Viktor Szigetvári Viktor Szigetvári (Szigetvári Viktor, born 16 October 1978 in Budapest) is a Hungarian politician, political scientist and campaign strategist, who served as leader of the Együtt party from 2013 to 2017. Career Szigetvári finished his secon ...

(Patriotism and Progress Association), Péter Kónya (Solidarity) and

Péter Juhász Péter Juhász (born 3 August 1948 in Losonc) was a Hungarian football defender, who played for Újpest FC. He won a silver medal in football at the 1972 Summer Olympics, and also participated in UEFA Euro 1972 for the Hungary national ...

(Milla). Kónya was elected Member of Parliament from the national list of the

Unity Unity may refer to: Buildings * Unity Building, Oregon, Illinois, US; a historic building * Unity Building (Chicago), Illinois, US; a skyscraper * Unity Buildings, Liverpool, UK; two buildings in England * Unity Chapel, Wyoming, Wisconsin, US; a h ...

electoral alliance in the 2014 national election. As an officially independent MP, he became a member of the Agriculture Committee. Solidarity left the Together party in February 2015, because disagreed with the party's internal integration and abolition of the Together's coalition platform system which led to the formation of an unified image party. Its president Kónya also left Together, but retained his parliamentary mandate. Kónya and his some followers left the Hungarian Solidarity Movement in October 2015 in order to establish a political party. He founded the Solidarity for Republic Party (SZKP) in February 2016. Nevertheless, the party, if ever existed, did not participate in the 2018 parliamentary election, thus Kónya lost his parliamentary seat.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Konya, Peter 1969 births Living people People from Miskolc Lviv Polytechnic alumni Together (Hungary) politicians Hungarian military personnel Hungarian trade unionists Members of the National Assembly of Hungary (2014–2018)