Pál Schmitt

Pál Schmitt (Schmitt Pál, Hungarian pronunciation: [ʃmit paːl]; born 13 May 1942) is a Hungarian politician who has been President of Hungary since 2010.

Schmitt was a successful fencer in his youth, winning two gold medals at the Summer Olympics. Later, he served as an ambassador during the 1990s, and he was a Vice President of the European Parliament from 2009 to 2010. After briefly serving as Speaker of the National Assembly of Hungary in 2010, Schmitt was elected as President of Hungary in a 263 to 59 vote in the Parliament of Hungary; he was sworn in as President on 6 August 2010.^[1]

Background

In addition to his native Hungarian, Pál Schmitt speaks German, French and English^[2] His family name Schmitt is German for smith, indicating a German family background.

Sporting career

Schmitt started a successful fencing career in 1955 competing for MTK-VM. After winning two Hungarian Championship titles in individual competitions he participated as part of the Hungarian National Fencing Team 130 times between 1965 and 1977. He won the team épée gold medal at the 1968 and 1972 Summer Olympics.^[3][4] Also won team and individual World Championships in fencing, and collected several second and third place finishes until hes active career ended in 1977. He later became the Chief of Protocol of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and presided over the World Olympians Association between 1999 and 2007.

Political career and President of Hungary

Between 1983 and 1988, Schmitt was the general secretary of the Hungarian Olympic Committee and under-secretary of sports between 1981-1990.^[5] In 1990 after the End of Communism in Hungary he became president of the Hungarian Olympic Committee. He later became a diplomat, serving as Hungary's ambassador to Spain (1993–1997) and Switzerland (1999–2002).^[6] While in Spain he was also accredited to Andorra from 1995. In 2003, he became a deputy president of Fidesz. In 2002 he ran for the position of mayor of Budapest, but his independent candidacy also supported by Fidesz was unsuccessful. He led the party list of Fidesz in the 2009 European elections in Hungary. Schmitt was elected in the 2009 elections as a Member of the European Parliament with the Fidesz – Hungarian Civic Union, to the Bureau of the European People's Party and was vice-chair of the European Parliament's Committee on Culture and Education.

Schmitt chaired the Delegation to the EU–Croatia Joint Parliamentary Committee. On 14 July 2009 he was elected one of the 14 Vice-Presidents of the European Parliament. He became the Speaker of the National Assembly of Hungary after Hungarian parliamentary election in 2010.^[7]

Following the Hungarian presidential election, 2010, Schmitt was elected President of Hungary by the National Assembly, for a term commencing on 6 August. He replaced László Sólyom the previous president.^[8] He was elected with the support of the Fidesz and KDNP parties,^[9] receiving 263 out of 322 votes. András Balogh of the Socialist Party received 59 votes.^[10]

Schmitt was the deputy president of Fidesz and the former speaker of the Hungarian Parliament. Since the first free elections in 1990 the nominating party often picked one of its high ranking members for president, such as SZDSZ nominating Árpád Göncz, founding member of SZDSZ. The previous MSZP Government's nominee was Katalin Szili, of MSZP the then speaker of the Hungarian Parliament. Schmitt foreshadowed a positive relationship with the Fidesz-KDNP government, saying: "In the current situation, when we undertake rebuilding the country economically, socially and morally, it is imperative that the president get along with the prime minister, as well as all leaders and government members."^[11] Schmitt said he does not intend to take an obstructionist stance towards the government, and also seeks a more active role in the political process such as creating the country's new constitution.^[12] After taking office, Schmitt resigned all posts and offices previously held. Soon after his election Schmitt came under heavy attacks from some opposition parties going as far as rejecting to attend the presidential inauguration citing high costs and a late invitation.^[13]

In 2010, a drafting process for a new constitution began to take place, was finalized by April 11, 2011, and was adopted by the Parliament on April 18.^[14][15][16] It was signed into law by Pál Schmitt on April 25 and went into effect on January 1, 2012.

Controversies

His presidential activity is debated for the Hungarian constituents. As a supporter of the second cabinet of Viktor Orbán, already it was probable before his appointment that the presidential position is his reversioner.^[17][18] This confirmed that he proclaimed it at the time of the starting of his presidential activity, he wants to be "man of the people", and would like to favour and help the current government's work.^[19]

He created a sensation,^[20][21] when, in a declaration which given to the Time on 15 October 2010^[22] Schmitt identified himself with the government's politics repeatedly, the last sentence of the interview started it so on expressed already though: We, the government…. The interview also published in the website of the Office of the President of the Republic of Hungary.^[23]

In November 2010, during a presidential speech he called one of his major goals is the preservation and fostering of the Hungarian language and stressed that this would make compulsory by law. However, after the speech several times many grammatical and stylistic errors statements have been published on the website of the Office of the President.^{[24][25][26][27]}

In the first months of his presidency, until 31 December 2010 Schmitt signed nearly hundred bills which were voted by the National Assembly and none given or sent back for consideration to the parliament or for constitutional review to the Constitutional Court of Hungary.^[28]

References

External links

• Biography at olympic.org
• European Parliament biography of Pál Schmitt (incl. Speeches, Questions and Motions)
• Declaration (PDF) of financial interests (Hungarian)
• Topic tag at Politics.hu