Pál Schmitt

Pál Schmitt, photo: Európai Bizottság / Dudás Szabolcs (2011)

Pál Schmitt (born May 13, 1942 in Budapest ) is a Hungarian diplomat and politician . From August 6, 2010 to April 2, 2012 he was Hungarian President . As a fencer , he was twice Olympic champion; As a result of a plagiarism scandal, he had to vacate his presidency early.

Athletic career

Pál Schmitt studied at what was then the Karl Marx University of Economics in Budapest. In 1965 he completed his studies with a diploma. Between 1955 and 1977 he was a fencer ( sword ) at MTK Budapest . He was Hungarian individual champion twice and is a 130-time selection fencer. At the Olympic Games in Mexico City in 1968 and in Munich in 1972 , he won the gold medal in the team competition.

During his sports career, he worked in various hotels, later at sports facilities in leading positions, including from 1982 as director of the National Stadium Budapest Sportcsarnok (today: Sportaréna ). Between 1983 and 1988 he was General Secretary of the Magyar Olimpiai Bizottság (MOB, Hungarian Olympic Committee). In 1983 he became a member of the IOC . The boycott of the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, in which all communist Eastern Bloc countries including Hungary took part , also fell during this period . Only neighboring Romania allowed its athletes to travel to the USA for the Games. In 1986 he became Secretary General of the MOB. In 1990 he was elected President of the Olympic Committee, a position he held until 2010. He was its vice-president from 1995 to 1999. Since then he has worked there as president of the sports and environmental commission (since 1995) and as chief of protocol (since 1999). In 2001 he applied for the presidential post of the IOC, but was defeated by Jacques Rogge .

Schmitt taught at the Sports University in Budapest. He is married to the gymnast Katalin Makray , who won a silver medal at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. You have three daughters.

Political career

From 1981 to 1990 Pál Schmitt was deputy sports minister in socialist Hungary . In 1993 he was appointed Hungarian ambassador to Madrid (later also accredited to Andorra ). He worked there until 1997. A year later he became ambassador to Switzerland (later also accredited to Liechtenstein ). After announcing his decision to participate as an independent candidate in the mayor elections of Budapest in 2002, Foreign Minister László Kovács recalled him from office. In the election he was defeated by the incumbent mayor Gábor Demszky and came second. He was supported by the conservative parties.

A year later he joined the renewed conservative Fidesz-MPSZ ( Fidesz-Magyar Polgári Szövetség, Fidesz-Hungarian Citizens' Union ) and was elected vice-president. He kept his MOB post, which earned him some criticism - some MOB members resigned. In the 2004 European elections he was the top candidate on the Fidesz MPSZ list and was elected to the European Parliament . As a member of the European Parliament , he joined the Group of the European People's Party , for which he was also elected Deputy President of the Parliament after the 2009 European elections .

However, he renounced his seat in the European Parliament after he had won a seat in the Hungarian parliament in the Hungarian parliamentary elections in 2010 at number 2 on the Fidesz list. On May 14, 2010, Schmitt was elected President of the Hungarian Parliament.

On June 29, 2010 Schmitt was elected as the new Hungarian President. With his nomination a week before the election, Fidesz had moved away from the incumbent president, the non-party László Sólyom . Schmitt's election was considered certain because the party had the necessary two-thirds majority in parliament. So he received 263 votes; his only opponent, the socialist András Balogh , received only 59 votes. Even before his presidential election, he promised full allegiance to the Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán . Schmitt signed more than 360 laws in 20 months without protest.

Loss of doctorate and resignation as president

On January 11, 2012, the online edition of the Hungarian magazine HVG reported that Schmitt had copied 180 of the 215 pages of his doctoral thesis from 1992 from a study by the Bulgarian sports scientist Nikolaj Georgiev in 1987 in Lausanne . The presidential spokeswoman denied the allegation. According to their statement, Schmitt and Georgiev wrote several studies in close cooperation. The two are said to have used the same sources when working on Georgiev's study and Schmitt's doctoral thesis. On January 19, 2012, it was reported that Schmitt had copied more pages from a book by the Hamburg sociologist Klaus Heinemann without labeling and indicating the source.

On March 29, 2012, the Senate of Semmelweis University (SOTE) in Budapest dismissed Schmitt's doctoral degree after a commission of inquiry confirmed the allegations of plagiarism, but which today the University of Physical Culture, which is now part of the SOTE, was largely at fault for not doing the plagiarized work should have assumed. The Hungarian opposition called for Schmitt's resignation and organized demonstrations, and Prime Minister Orbán assured the president of his support. However, Schmitt could not be stopped, especially since Orbán's Fidesz party called for resignation. As a result of the plagiarism scandal, Schmitt declared his resignation from the presidency on April 2, 2012. Tivadar Tulassay, the rector of SOTE, also resigned because the trust of the responsible ministry in him had "noticeably dwindled" since the doctorate was withdrawn.

International sporting success

• Singles:
  • World Cup winner (1971)
• Team:
  • Olympic Champion (1968, 1972)
  • World Champion (1970, 1971)
  • World Cup silver (1969, 1973)
  • World Cup bronze (1967, 1974, 1975)

Web links

Commons : Pál Schmitt  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Pál Schmitt in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
• Entry on Pál Schmitt in the European Parliament 's database of deputies

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Gergely Kispál: Pál Schmitt is the only promising candidate for the presidency . In: Budapester Zeitung , June 29, 2010.
2. ↑ Olympic Vote 2008: Presidential Candidates - Pal Schmitt ( Memento of the original from April 9, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The  archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . In: BBC , 2001. IOC: All election results - the new IOC executive . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , July 16, 2001.
3. ↑ Right-wing radical politician causes a scandal . In: Basler Zeitung , May 14, 2010.
4. ^ Pal Schmitt new president . In: Der Standard , June 29, 2010.
5. ^ Peter Bognar: Hungary: The tragic end of László Solyom . In: Die Presse , June 28, 2010.
6. ↑ New President Pal Schmitt wants to act without party . In: stern.de , June 30, 2010, accessed on March 31, 2012.
7. ↑ Pal Schmitt cancels official dates . In: stern.de , March 30, 2012. Hungarian President Pal Schmitt loses his doctorate . In: focus.de , March 30, 2012.
8. ↑ Miklós György: Súlyos plágiumgyanú Schmitt Pál doktori értekezése körül. In: HVG . January 11, 2012, accessed January 11, 2012 . Hungary's President under suspicion of plagiarism . In: ORF , January 12, 2012. 
9. ↑ Schmitt Pál hivatala visszautasítja a plágiumvádakat. In: HVG . January 11, 2012, accessed January 11, 2012 . 
10. ↑ A Bolgár után német szál a Schmitt ügyben. In: Index.hu. January 19, 2012. Retrieved January 19, 2012 . 
11. ↑ Hungary's President Schmitt loses his doctorate . In: ORF.at , March 29, 2012, accessed on April 2, 2012.
12. ↑ ^{a b} Hungary's President Schmitt resigns. "Symbol of division" . In: ORF.at , April 2, 2012, accessed on April 2, 2012.
13. ↑ Lemondott: Schmitt belebukott a plágiumbotrányba . In: hvg.hu , April 2, 2012, accessed April 2, 2012.