Katalin Szili

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Katalin Szili (born May 13, 1956 in Barcs, Hungary) is the President of the National Assembly of Hungary, a post to which she was elected in 2002. After obtaining a degree in law at Janus Pannonius University, she completed majors in human ecology and political science. She has been a legislator since 1994. Between 1994 and 1998 she was the political secretary of the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Water.

She was the candidate for presidency of the Hungarian Socialist Party in the 2005 Hungarian presidential elections. Szili lost the election on June 7, 2005 to opposition nominee László Sólyom. The Hungarian Constitution prescribes that the President must be elected by the National Assembly of Hungary, thus the victory of the opposition came as something of a surprise. The junior coalition party, the Alliance of Free Democrats (SZDSZ), however, had long emphasized that it would not vote for a partisan President. As Szili is a member of the Socialist party, the SZDSZ abstained, enabling the opposition candidate Sólyom (who was, however, originally nominated by an NGO), [Védegylet], to win the office.

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