Máté Kocsis

Máté Kocsis (born May 6, 1981)^[1] is a Hungarian jurist and politician, current Mayor of Józsefváros (8th district of Budapest) since 2009.^[2] He also represents Józsefváros (Budapest Constituency XI) in the National Assembly of Hungary since 2010.^[2]

Biography

He graduated from the Calvinist Secondary Grammar School of Lónyay Street in 1999. He received his Juris Doctor degree at the Pázmány Péter Catholic University in 2004. He participated in the joint graduate school of the Századvég Political School and the Corvinus University of Budapest as a policy expert between 2004 and 2006.^[1]

Kocsis was delegated to the Budapest Electoral Commission by the Fidesz during the 2006 Hungarian parliamentary election. He was elected to the General Assembly of Józsefváros in the 2006 Hungarian local elections. He served as a Deputy Mayor of Józsefváros and leader of the Fidesz group from 2006 to 2009. He also became a member of the General Assembly of Budapest in 2006. He served as Vice Chairman of the Metropolitan Committee on Law and Procedure.^[1] Béla Csécsei, the Mayor of Józsefváros, resigned from his position for health reasons in 2009.^[3] Kocsis was elected mayor during a by-election on November 22, 2009. As a result he resigned from his seat in the General Assembly of Budapest.^[1]

He was elected Member of Parliament for Józsefváros in the 2010 Hungarian parliamentary election. He was appointed Chairman of the Defence and Internal Security Committee on May 17, 2010. He is also a member of the Committee on National Security since February 14, 2011. He was a member of the Ad Hoc Committee on Preparation of Constitution between July 5, 2010 and March 7, 2011, therefore he participated in the drawing up of the new constitution.^[2] In May 2011, Fidesz called for a fact-finding committee to be set up, examining the circumstances of tension between local Roma and non-Roma in the north Hungarian village of Gyöngyöspata. Kocsis became Chairman of that ad hoc committee.^[4]

Controversies

In November 2011, the General Assembly of Józsefváros passed decrees against the homeless people which tried to force them to the homeless shelter. The city council also banned smoking, begging and sleeping on the streets for the homeless people. Police arrested activists from the A Város Mindenkié (The City Belongs to Everyone) group when they demonstrated against the decrees. Several dozen protestors staged a sit-in at the mayor’s office as part of the protest. Kocsis claimed that this was “the umpteenth time” that he had “offered collaboration”, but the demonstrators had not taken up his offer.^[5]

A year after the announcement of the "law enforcement action", there were still many homeless people on the street. The office of the infringement was also closed. According to some residents, the authorities were dispatched to collect the homeless people.^[6]

In January 2013, after an anti-Roma text written by Zsolt Bayer (co-founder of Fidesz and a friend of Viktor Orbán) in the newspaper Magyar Hírlap, Máté Kocsis (the communications chief of the same party) stated that anyone who protested against the article "was putting himself on the side of murderers" - meaning the Roma. The article in question affirmed: "A considerable proportion of the gypsies is not fit to live among people. They are animals. These animals should certainly not exist. The problem must be solved - immediately and no matter how." ^[7][8]

In December 2014, Kocsis attracted international attention by proposing mandatory annual drug tests for children between the ages of 12 and 18, politicians and journalists.^[9]

References