Mátyás Szűrös

Mátyás Szűrös, 2012

Mátyás Szűrös [ ˈmaːcaːʃ ˈsyːrøʃ ] (born September 11, 1933 in Püspökladány , Hungary) is a Hungarian politician and former president .

Studies and diplomatic career

After studying international relations in Moscow from 1953 to 1959, Szűrös joined the diplomatic service. From 1962 to 1965 he worked at the embassy in the GDR . He then worked for ten years in the International Department of the Central Committee of the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party (USAP) .

From 1975 to 1978 Szűrös was ambassador to the GDR and then until 1982 ambassador to the Soviet Union .

Political career and first President of the Republic of Hungary

Szűrös became head of the Central Committee for International Relations in 1982, then Secretary of the USAP Central Committee for Foreign Affairs in 1983. He represented the USAP as a member of the National Assembly from 1985 to 2002, but later often voted against the opinion of his group as such. Mátyás Szűrös was elected President of the National Assembly (Országgyűlés) on March 10, 1989 . He held this office until May 2, 1990.

After the dissolution of the People's Republic of Hungary and the establishment of the Republic of Hungary on October 23, 1989, he was also elected the first president of the newly established republic. On May 2, 1990 Árpád Göncz succeeded him in this office.

Then Szűrös was Vice President of the National Assembly until 1994. In 1989 and 1994 to 2002 he was chairman of the Hungarian delegation to the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) .

He left the USAP in 2002 and joined the New Left Party, for which he ran for prime ministerial office. However, the party only received 0.1 percent of the vote. In 2003 he joined the Social Democratic Party , which a short time later elected him to be its chairman. In the European elections on May 27, 2004, he ran unsuccessfully for the European Parliament . In 2005 Mátyás Szűrös resigned from this office.

source

• http://www.elections2004.eu.int/elections2004/ep-election/sites/de/yourvoice/hu/candidates.html (link not available)