Anna Júlia Donáth (born 6 April 1987) is a Hungarian politician. She was elected as a

Momentum Movement Momentum Movement (, Momentum) is a centrist Hungarian political party founded in March 2017. It came to national prominence as a political association in January 2017 after organizing a petition about the Budapest bid for the 2024 Summer Olympics ...

(part of the

Renew Europe Renew Europe (or simply Renew) is a liberal, centrist to centre-right, pro-European political group of the European Parliament founded for the ninth European Parliament term. The group is the successor to the Alliance of Liberals and Dem ...

group)

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) in the

2019 European Parliament election The 2019 European Parliament election was held in the European Union (EU) between 23 and 26 May 2019. It was the ninth parliamentary election since the first direct elections in 1979. A total of 751 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) we ...

. Donáth was the leader of the party between 21 November 2021 and 29 May 2022, and also from 28 January to 7 July 2024.

Early life and career

Donáth was born on 6 April 1987 in

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

, Hungary, to László Donáth and Ildikó Muntag. She is the youngest of three siblings. Her father is a former

pastor A pastor (abbreviated to "Ps","Pr", "Pstr.", "Ptr." or "Psa" (both singular), or "Ps" (plural)) is the leader of a Christianity, Christian congregation who also gives advice and counsel to people from the community or congregation. In Lutherani ...

and former member of parliament for 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 ...

. Her paternal grandfather, Ferenc Donáth, is of

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

descent, and was a lawyer and one of the three secretaries of the Central Committee of the

Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party The Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party (, , 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 People's Party during the Hungaria ...

during the

Hungarian Revolution of 1956 The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 (23 October – 4 November 1956; ), also known as the Hungarian Uprising, was an attempted countrywide revolution against the government of the Hungarian People's Republic (1949–1989) and the policies caused by ...

. Donáth's early education was at Veres Péter High School in

Békásmegyer Békásmegyer () is a neighbourhood in Budapest, Hungary. It belongs administratively to the 3rd District. Békásmegyer consists of two different parts, a huge high-rise housing estate and the traditional ''Ófalu'' ("Old Village") with older hou ...

, Budapest. She studied

sociology Sociology is the scientific study of human society that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. The term sociol ...

at the

Eötvös Loránd University Eötvös Loránd University (, ELTE, also known as ''University of Budapest'') is a Hungarian public research university based in Budapest. Founded in 1635, ELTE is one of the largest and most prestigious public higher education institutions in ...

in Budapest and migration and ethnic studies at the

University of Amsterdam The University of Amsterdam (abbreviated as UvA, ) is a public university, public research university located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Established in 1632 by municipal authorities, it is the fourth-oldest academic institution in the Netherlan ...

. After graduating, she completed an internship at the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the primary Executive (government), executive arm of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with a number of European Commissioner, members of the Commission (directorial system, informall ...

, before returning to Hungary to become a project manager for the

non-governmental organization A non-governmental organization (NGO) is an independent, typically nonprofit organization that operates outside government control, though it may get a significant percentage of its funding from government or corporate sources. NGOs often focus ...

(NGO), Menedék. She joined the

in 2016, and became its vice president in June 2018. Donáth was a candidate for the

centrist Centrism is the range of political ideologies that exist between left-wing politics and right-wing politics on the left–right political spectrum. It is associated with moderate politics, including people who strongly support moderate policie ...

party in the

2018 Hungarian parliamentary election Parliamentary elections were held in Hungary on 8 April 2018. The elections were the second since the adoption of a new constitution, which came into force on 1 January 2012. The result was a victory for the Fidesz– KDNP alliance, preserving ...

. The party did not win any seats in the election. In December 2018, Donáth participated in a protest against the Hungarian government's new labour law dubbed by opponents as "the slave law", which raised the overtime yearly cap for workers from 250 to 400 hours, and allowed businesses three years instead of one year to pay for the overtime. Donáth was arrested at the protest, and later released.

European Parliament

Donáth stood as a candidate for

in the 2019 European Parliament election in Hungary. She was second on her party's list, and was elected as one of its two MEPs (the other being Katalin Cseh) in

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, 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 and ...

. She represents the third generation of her family to enter political office (after her father and her paternal grandfather). In the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the two legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it ...

, Donáth is a member of the

party group. She serves on the

Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs 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 ...

. In this capacity, she is also member of the Democracy, Rule of Law & Fundamental Rights Monitoring Group. In 2022, she joined the Committee of Inquiry to investigate the use of

Pegasus Pegasus (; ) is a winged horse in Greek mythology, usually depicted as a white stallion. He was sired by Poseidon, in his role as horse-god, and foaled by the Gorgon Medusa. Pegasus was the brother of Chrysaor, both born from Medusa's blood w ...

and equivalent surveillance

spyware Spyware (a portmanteau for spying software) is any malware that aims to gather information about a person or organization and send it to another entity in a way that harms the user by violating their privacy, endangering their device's securit ...

. In addition to her committee assignments, Donáth is part of the parliament's delegation to the European Union–Albania Stabilisation and Association Parliamentary Committee, the European Parliament Intergroup on Freedom of Religion or Belief and Religious Tolerance, and the

European Parliament Intergroup on LGBT Rights The European Parliament Intergroup on LGBTI Rights is an intergroup of the European Parliament's legislators which focuses on the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) persons both inside and outside the European Uni ...

. After becoming an MEP, Donáth gained immunity from prosecution for her participation in the December 2018 labour law protest, however Donáth chose to waive it on 29 May 2019. Donáth was elected leader of the Momentum Movement on 21 November 2021. She acquired 56.6 percent of the vote, defeating Anna Orosz (28.9%) and Gábor Hollai (14.5%). Following the 2022 Hungarian parliamentary election, where the opposition alliance

United for Hungary United for Hungary (, ) was a big tent political alliance in Hungary that was formed to compete in the 2022 Hungarian parliamentary election, 2022 parliamentary election. The alliance lost the 2022 election, and dissolved shortly after. History ...

, including Momentum, suffered a heavy defeat, Donáth announced on 9 May 2022 that she was pregnant and would not stand for the party's renewal election. She was succeeded by Ferenc Gelencsér. Donáth returned to the Hungarian politics as leader of Momentum in January 2024. Under her leadership, the party wanted to develop an independent political image from the other opposition parties. Donáth refused to join DK–MSZP–Dialogue Alliance and ran independently the

2024 European Parliament election The 2024 European Parliament election was held in the European Union (EU) between 6 and 9 June 2024. It was the tenth Elections to the European Parliament, parliamentary election since the 1979 European Parliament election, first direct electio ...

and 2024 Budapest Assembly election too. Ahead of the 2024 European Parliament election in Hungary, which would hold its six-month European Union presidency from July 2024, she was considered among the MEPs to watch and described as one of "the most prominent Orbán opposers in the Parliament". However, Momentum failed to win mandates in both EP and Budapest municipal elections too (thus Donáth also lost her seat in the European Parliament), therefore Donáth and the entire leadership of Momentum resigned on 10 June 2024.

Recognition

In December 2020, Donáth received an award at ''The Parliament Magazine''s annual MEP Awards for best use of

Social Media Social media are interactive technologies that facilitate the Content creation, creation, information exchange, sharing and news aggregator, aggregation of Content (media), content (such as ideas, interests, and other forms of expression) amongs ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Donáth, Anna Júlia 1987 births Living people MEPs for Hungary 2019–2024 Women MEPs for Hungary Momentum Movement politicians Politicians from Budapest