Lajos Kósa

Lajos Kósa (born March 14, 1964)^[1] is a Hungarian economist and politician, current Mayor of Debrecen since 1998.^[2] He represents Debrecen (Hajdú-Bihar County Constituency III) in the National Assembly of Hungary since 1998. He was also a Member of Parliament from 1990 to 1998.^[2]

Kósa currently serves as First Vice President of the Fidesz since May 14, 2010.

Biography

Family

Kósa was born into a farmer family from Szamosszeg which moved to Debrecen in the early 1950s. His parents were Lajos Kósa, Sr., a mathematics teacher and Katalin Bacskó, a nurse. He married Gyöngyi Porkoláb, they have three daughters and a son.^[1]

Studies

He finished the Teacher Training Secondary School of the Kossuth Lajos University in Debrecen in 1982. He completed military service between 1982 and 1983 in Szombathely. He graduated from the Planned Economy Department of the Karl Marx University of Economics in Budapest in 1989. As a student, he participated in the Rajk László College for Advanced Studies and became its secretary in 1986. He was assistant researcher at the Institute of Economic Cycles, Market Research and Information Technology, and was a visiting teacher of macroeconomics at the University of Economics in 1989.^[1]

Political career

He was one of the founding members of Fidesz on 30 March 1988. He participated in the tripartite political negotiations and the Opposition Round Table discussions in 1989. He was a member of the political advisory team of the party from 1989 to 1990, member of the economic policy team from 1992, member of the party's presidium from June 1994 to May 2003, Vice President from 1995 to 2003, President of the Hajdú-Bihar County branch from 1994 and re-elected in the party elections. Since the summer of 2003 he has been a member of the presidium of the local government division of Fidesz, and has been constituency chairman since the autumn of the same year.^[1]

He has been a Member of Parliament since 1990 (1990: National List; 1994: Hajdú-Bihar County Regional List; since 1998: Debrecen, Hajdú-Bihar County Constituency III). He was elected Mayor of Debrecen in the local elections on 18 October 1998. He was awarded Mayor of the Year in the spring of 2001. He served as deputy parliamentary group leader and Chairman of the Audit Committee from September 1998 to May 2002. He was re-elected as representative of Debrecen in the first round of the parliamentary elections in April 2002. He was re-elected Mayor of Debrecen on October 20, 2002. Since the inauguration of the new Parliament, he was a member of the Audit Committee. He was first the deputy chairman until June 2003, then, since the reallocation of positions in June, a member of the Local Government Committee. In the parliamentary elections held in 2006, he was elected MP for Debrecen again. He was elected member of the Local Government and Urban Development Committee on 30 May 2006.^[2]

Kósa was appointed one of the four Vice Presidents of the party in 2007, alongside Ildikó Pelczné Gáll, Zoltán Pokorni and Mihály Varga. He also secured an individual mandate during the parliamentary election in 2010. He retained his membership in the Local Government and Urban Development Committee.^[2] He was nominated First or Managing Vice President of the Fidesz, after Party President Viktor Orbán was appointed Prime Minister of Hungary on May 14, 2010.

References

External links

• Kósa Lajos életrajza a Fidesz honlapján
• Kósa Lajos országgyűlési adatlapja
• Kósa Lajos Debrecen hivatalos honlapján
• Kósa Lajos: Nem a piszoárt kéne méricskélni! - Interview in the Index.hu website (March 30, 2010)