Dr. Zoltán Illés (born 17 January 1961) is a Hungarian chemical engineer and politician, member of the

National Assembly of Hungary 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 m ...

(MP) for

Terézváros Terézváros (, English: Theresa Town, German: Theresienstadt) is the District VI of Budapest, and was named after Queen Maria Theresa in 1777, who visited the neighbourhood 26 years earlier in 1751. The territory was first inhabited in the earl ...

, 6th District of

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 ...

(Budapest Constituency VIII) from 2010 to 2014. He also represented Terézváros between 1998 and 2002. He secured a seat from

Fidesz Fidesz – Hungarian Civic Alliance (; ) is a national-conservative political party in Hungary led by Viktor Orbán. It has increasingly identified as illiberal. Originally formed in 1988 under the name of Alliance of Young Democrats () as ...

National List in the

2002 Hungarian parliamentary election Parliamentary elections were held 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 ...

. He served as Chairman of the Committee on the Environment from 25 June 1998 to 14 May 2002. Illés was appointed Secretary of State for Environmental Protection and Water in the Ministry of Rural Development on 2 June 2010. He is also a meritorious student and received prestigious Fulbright - Humphrey Scholarship. In September 2013, Illés responded to a formal question from

Bernadett Szél Dr. Bernadett Szél (born 9 March 1977) is a Hungarian economist and politician, and was a member of the National Assembly (MP) between 2012 and 2022. She was co-President of the Politics Can Be Different (''Lehet Más a Politika''; LMP) party f ...

( LMP) about the

Roșia Montană Project Roșia Montană Project was a proposed gold and silver mine in Roșia Montană, Romania. If approved, it would have become Europe's largest open-pit gold mine and it would have used the gold cyanidation mining technique. The project met with wi ...

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

, where amongst other things he said "just because you’re pretty doesn’t also mean you’re smart," and lectured her for daring to utter the Prime Minister

Viktor Orbán Viktor Mihály Orbán (; born 31 May 1963) is a Hungarian lawyer and politician who has been the 56th prime minister of Hungary since 2010, previously holding the office from 1998 to 2002. He has also led the Fidesz political party since 200 ...

's name. Later, Illés has apologized for these remarks. House Speaker

László Kövér László Kövér (; born 29 December 1959) is a Hungarian politician who is the current List of speakers of the National Assembly (Hungary), speaker of the National Assembly of Hungary. Under his capacity as speaker, he was also twice acting pre ...

has defended Illés' controversial comments in parliament, referring to his fellow Fidesz politician’s words as "offensive, but not flagrantly offensive." As environmentalist, he strongly criticized the planned upgrade of the

Paks Nuclear Power Plant The Paks Nuclear Power Plant () is located from the small town of Paks, central Hungary, 100km southwest of Budapest on the shores of the Danube river. It is the first and only operating nuclear power station in Hungary. In 2019, its four rea ...

, signed between the Hungarian and Russian governments in January 2014. As a result, he was unable to run as parliamentary candidate for the 2014 parliamentary election. Since then, Illés accused Orbán's government in several cases with corruption and development of oligarchic system.

Personal life

He is married. His wife is Dr Adrienne Illésné Gerlényi. They have a son, Szabolcs.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Illes, Zoltan 1961 births Living people Hungarians in Vojvodina Hungarian people of Croatian descent Fidesz 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 (2010–2014) Politicians from Subotica