Vilmos Szabó (born 17 July 1952) is a Hungarian educator and

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) politician,

member of the National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the rep ...

(MP) between 1998 and 2014. He served as Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs from 2009 to 2010.

Studies and profession

Szabó was born in

Sarud Sarud is a village in Heves County, 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 ...

Heves County Heves county ( hu, Heves megye, ) lies in northern Hungary, between the right bank of the river Tisza and the Mátra and Bükk mountains. It shares borders with the Hungarian counties Pest, Nógrád, Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén and Jász-Nagykun-S ...

on 17 July 1952. He finished his secondary studies 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 ...

in 1970. He attended Kossuth Lajos University (today

Debrecen University ThUniversity of Debrecen( hu, Debreceni Egyetem) is a university located in Debrecen, Hungary. It is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, oldest continuously operating institution of higher education in Hungary ever since its ...

) from 1970 to 1975, where he earned a degree of German-language and historian teacher. He was an assistant lecturer at the

Budapest Technical University The Budapest University of Technology and Economics ( hu, Budapesti Műszaki és Gazdaságtudományi Egyetem or in short ), official abbreviation BME, is the most significant university of technology in Hungary and is considered the world's oldes ...

(BME) from 1976 to 1988.

Political career

Szabó joined the

Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party The Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party ( hu, Magyar Szocialista Munkáspárt, MSZMP) was the ruling Marxist–Leninist party of the Hungarian People's Republic between 1956 and 1989. It was organised from elements of the Hungarian Working Peop ...

(MSZMP) in 1982. Later he became secretary of its

Újbuda Újbuda (lit. ''New Buda'') is the 11th district of Budapest ( hu, Budapest XI. kerület), Hungary. It is the most populous district of Budapest with 137,426 inhabitants (2008). Until the 1890s, Újbuda's present territory was a field south of th ...

(11th District of

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 ...

) branch. He was a founding member of the Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP) in 1989. He was a member of the local representative body of Újbuda from 1990 to 1994. He was appointed chairman of the MSZP local branch in Újbuda in 1994. He was a member of the

General Assembly of Budapest The General Assembly of Budapest ( hu, Fővárosi Közgyűlés, lit=Capital City Assembly) is a unicameral body consisting of 33 members, which consist of the 23 mayors of the districts, 9 from the electoral lists of political parties, and the Mayo ...

between 1994 and 1998. He functioned as Head of the MSZP's International Secretariat from 1994 to 2002. He was elected a Member of Parliament via his party's national list in the 1998 parliamentary election. He became a member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, continuing his work there until 2014. He was re-elected MP in

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

and

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

. He served as Political Secretary of State in the Prime Minister's Office between 2002 and 2006, in the cabinets of

Péter Medgyessy Péter Medgyessy (; born 19 October 1942) is a retired Hungarian politician who served as Prime Minister of Hungary from 27 May 2002 to 29 September 2004. On 25 August 2004, he resigned over disputes with coalition partner Alliance of Free Democr ...

and

Ferenc Gyurcsány Ferenc Gyurcsány (; born 4 June 1961) is a Hungarian entrepreneur and politician who served as Prime Minister of Hungary from 2004 to 2009. Prior to that, he held the position of Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports between 2003 and 2004. He ...

. He served as Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs from 2009 to 2010 under minister

Péter Balázs Péter Balázs (, born 5 December 1941) is a Hungarian politician who served as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2009 to 2010. In addition to his native Hungarian, he speaks English, French, German and Russian. He graduated from Budapest ...

in the government of

Gordon Bajnai György Gordon Bajnai (; born 5 March 1968) is a Hungarian entrepreneur and economist, who served as the Prime Minister of Hungary from 2009 to 2010. Prior to that, he functioned as Minister of Local Government and Regional Development from 2007 ...

. He was deputy leader of the MSZP parliamentary group from 2010 to 2011. He was appointed Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Mihály Táncsics Foundation in 2011. He was a member of the Parliamentary Committee for National Communion between 2011 and 2014. He was deputy leader of the Hungarian delegation to the

Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) is the parliamentary arm of the Council of Europe, a 46-nation international organisation dedicated to upholding human rights, democracy and the rule of law. The Assembly is made up o ...

between 2010 and 2014.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Szabo, Vilmos 1952 births Living people Hungarian educators Members of the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party Hungarian Socialist Party politicians 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 Heves County