Katalin Szili

Katalin Szili (born May 13, 1956 in Barcs, Hungary) is the Speaker of the National Assembly of Hungary, a post to which she was elected on May 15, 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 of the Hungarian Socialist Party for presidency 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. Szili as a high ranking a member of the Socialist party was considered partisan, the SZDSZ abstained, enabling the more neutral candidate Sólyom (who was originally nominated by an NGO [http://www.vedegylet.hu Védegylet] and later supported by the opposition), to win the office. Another reason for the failed nomination was that SZDSZ was not consulted ahead of time and Szili lacked qualifications compared to Sólyom who previously held high office as the president of the Constitutional Court of Hungary.