Ildikó Lendvai (born 20 July 1946) is a Hungarian politician, who served as the leader of 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 ...

(MSZP) between 5 April 2009 and 10 July 2010.

Biography

Ildikó Lendvai was born 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 ...

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 ...

on 20 July 1946. She spent her childhood in

Nagykanizsa Nagykanizsa (; , or just ''Kaniža/Kanjiža''; ; ; ; ), known colloquially as Kanizsa, is a medium-sized city in Zala County in southwestern Hungary. It is a city with county rights. It lies not far from Lake Balaton at the meeting point of five ...

Pécs Pécs ( , ; ; Slovak language, Slovak: ''Päťkostolie''; also known by #Name, alternative names) is List of cities and towns of Hungary#Largest cities in Hungary, the fifth largest city in Hungary, on the slopes of the Mecsek mountains in the c ...

and

Szolnok Szolnok (; also known by #Name and etymology, alternative names) is the county seat of Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok county in central Hungary. A city with county rights, it is located on the banks of the Tisza river, in the heart of the Great Hungarian ...

, following the movement of the family due to different jobs taken by her father. She was five when the family moved to

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 ...

, she graduated from Varga Katalin High School there in 1964. She received a teacher's degree majoring in History and Hungarian from ELTE university in 1972 she added philosophy in 1974. Between 1969 and 1972, she was a teacher at Móra Ferenc High School and she taught from 1974 at

Keszthely Keszthely (; also known by alternative names) is a Hungarian city of 20,895 inhabitants located on the western shore of Lake Balaton. It is the second largest city by the lake and one of the more important cultural, educational and economic hub ...

University of Agriculture at the philosophy department. In 1974 she became a member of

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 ...

(MSZMP) and started working at the cultural department of the

Hungarian Young Communist League The Hungarian Young Communist League (, KISZ) was a communist youth movement in the Hungarian People's Republic that was attached to the ruling Socialist Workers' Party. History It was founded on 21 March 1957 (on the anniversary of the Hungarian ...

(KISZ). Then from 1984 started working for the Central Committee of the party again handling cultural matters. After rising through the ranks and becoming deputy department chief she limited the possibility for publication for works and writers considered dangerous by the party and allegedly took a part in the banning of the "Tiszatáj" a literary magazine in 1986. What can be certainly determined is that she worked as a censor in that capacity for

György Aczél György Aczél (born Henrik Appel; 31 August 1917 – 6 December 1991) was a Hungarian communist politician. He became a member of the then illegal Hungarian Communist Party in 1935, and was a founding member of the ''Political Committee (''Hu ...

.Lendvai: háttéralkukkal a csúcsra

Index Index (: indexes or indices) may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional entities * Index (''A Certain Magical Index''), a character in the light novel series ''A Certain Magical Index'' * The Index, an item on the Halo Array in the ...

, 2009. április 5. She was a member of the

Hungarian Parliament 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 ...

from the 1994 parliamentary election until 2014, when she retired from politics. Since 2002, she was leader of the socialist parliamentary group. Before her election as party leader she requested that the party be led by a three-member executive committee and that

Attila Mesterházy Attila Mesterházy (born 30 January 1974) is a Hungarian politician, who served as the seventh chairman of the Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP) from 10 July 2010 to 29 May 2014. He was a Member of Parliament between 2004 and 2022. He was the par ...

is to succeed her as the leader of the socialist faction in parliament.Socialists formally tap Bajnai for PM, Lendvai for party chief
/ref> Lendvai led the party into the 2009

European Parliament election Elections to the European Parliament take place every five years by universal adult suffrage; with more than 400 million people eligible to vote, they are the second largest democratic elections in the world after India's. Until 2019, 751 ...

in June. She resigned from her position after the worst defeat of

2010 elections This is a list of elections that were held in 2010. * 2010 United Nations Security Council election * 2010 national electoral calendar * 2010 local electoral calendar Africa * 2010 Burkinabé presidential election * 2010 Burundian Senate election * ...

. The party congress elected Attila Mesterházy to her successor on 10 July 2010.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lendvai, Ildiko 1946 births Living people Women members of the National Assembly of Hungary Hungarian Socialist Party politicians Members of the National Assembly of Hungary (1994–1998) 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 Debrecen 20th-century Hungarian women politicians 21st-century Hungarian women politicians