Zsolt Csenger-Zalán (born 22 August 1957) is a Hungarian chemical engineer, businessman, politician and diplomat,

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 represen ...

(MP) for

Budaörs Budaörs (; ; , or ; ) is a town in Pest County, Budapest metropolitan area, Hungary. Location A suburb of Budapest, the town lies among the Buda and Csiki hills and the Tétény plateau in the Budaörs-basin. The dramatic ''Törökugrató' ...

( Pest County Constituency IX) between 2010 and 2014, and for

Budakeszi Budakeszi ( or ) is a town in Pest County, in the Budapest metropolitan area, Hungary. It is located beyond the János Hill at the western city limits of Budapest, about west of the Zero Kilometre Stone in the city centre. A popular recreational ...

(Pest County Constituency II) from 2014 to 2022.

Professional work

He finished his secondary studies at the Petrik Lajos Vocational School of Chemistry in 1975. He earned a degree of chemical engineer at the Budapest University of Technology (BME) in 1980. He took foreign trade examination in 1983 and advanced entrepreneurship qualification in 1988. He attended the

University at Buffalo The State University of New York at Buffalo (commonly referred to as UB, University at Buffalo, and sometimes SUNY Buffalo) is a public university, public research university in Buffalo, New York, Buffalo and Amherst, New York, United States. ...

in 2004, obtaining

MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA) is a professional degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration; elective courses may allow further study in a particular a ...

degree. Csenger-Zalán worked as a design engineer for the Institute of Energy Management between 1980 and 1981, where he dealt with utilization and disposal of power plant waste materials in this capacity. Subsequently, he was a marketing lecturer at the Hungarian Optical Works (MOM). He was a sales representative of the Technoimpex foreign trade company in

Nigeria Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...

and other countries in

West Africa West Africa, also known as Western Africa, is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations geoscheme for Africa#Western Africa, United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Gha ...

from 1983 to 1988. He was representative of the Berema AB. Swedish company in Hungary for a short time in 1989. At the end of the year, he founded his own company Scantrade Ltd., specializing in the distribution of construction machinery. He established Scantrade Recycling Ltd. in 1992, which was a distributor of German, Austrian and Italian recycling and waste processing machines in the Hungarian market.

Political career

Csenger-Zalán was a founding member of the

Hungarian Democratic Forum The Hungarian Democratic Forum (, , MDF) was a centre-right political party in Hungary. It had a Hungarian nationalist, national-conservative, Christian-democratic ideology. The party was represented continuously in the National Assembly from t ...

(MDF) in 1988. He was a member of the presidency of its District I–XII branch until 1991. He joined

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 ...

in November 2002. He was appointed president of the party's branch in Constituency IX, Pest County (Budaörs) in January 2004. He was a councilor at the General Assembly of Pest County from 2006 to 2010. He was elected a Member of Parliament for Budaörs in the 2010 parliamentary election. He was a member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs from 14 May 2010 to 1 May 2022, and a member of the Committee on National Security from 13 September 2010 to 5 May 2014. He served as mayor of

Zsámbék Zsámbék () is a town in Pest County, Hungary. Location Zsámbék is located 30 km west of Budapest along the M1 motorway in the Gerecse Mountains. Its neighbouring villages are Tök, Perbál, Páty, Herceghalom, Mány, Bicske, and S ...

between 2010 and 2014. He was elected MP for Budakeszi in the 2014 parliamentary election. He was appointed vice-chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, holding that position until 2022. He was re-elected MP for Budakeszi in the 2018 parliamentary election, narrowly defeating

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 ...

, the co-chairperson of the

Politics Can Be Different Politics () is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of status or resources. The branch of social science that studies poli ...

. Csenger-Zalán was also a member of the parliamentary assemblies of the

Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) is a regional security-oriented intergovernmental organization comprising member states in Europe, North America, and Asia. Its mandate includes issues such as arms control, the p ...

(OSCE) and the

Council of Europe The Council of Europe (CoE; , CdE) is an international organisation with the goal of upholding human rights, democracy and the Law in Europe, rule of law in Europe. Founded in 1949, it is Europe's oldest intergovernmental organisation, represe ...

. Csenger-Zalán was replaced as Fidesz candidate in Budakeszi constituency by secretary of state Tamás Menczer, who ultimately defeated Bernadett Szél in the

2022 Hungarian parliamentary election Parliamentary elections were held in Hungary on 3 April 2022 to elect the National Assembly, coinciding with a referendum. Hungary's incumbent prime minister Viktor Orbán won re-election to a fourth term. Addressing his supporters after the pa ...

. Simultaneously, Csenger-Zalán was appointed Hungarian Ambassador to

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

, replacing István Mikola.

Personal life

He is married. His wife is Katalin Csenger-Zalán. They have two daughters, Kincső and Zselyke.CSENGER-ZALÁN ZSOLT - FIDESZ - 2015-ÖS VAGYONNYILATKOZAT - January 21, 2016
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Csenger-Zalan, Zsolt 1957 births Living people Budapest University of Technology and Economics alumni University at Buffalo alumni Hungarian Democratic Forum politicians Fidesz politicians Mayors of places in Hungary Members of the National Assembly of Hungary (2010–2014) Members of the National Assembly of Hungary (2014–2018) Members of the National Assembly of Hungary (2018–2022) Politicians from Budapest Ambassadors of Hungary to Australia