Pál Schmitt

Pál Schmitt ( born May 13, 1942 in Budapest) is a Hungarian diplomat and politician. From 6 August 2010 to April 2, 2012 he was Hungarian President. As a fencer, he was twice Olympic champion.

Sporting career

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

During his racing career, he worked in various hotels, and later with sports facilities in leading positions, including from 1982 as director of the National Stadium Budapest Sportcsarnok (now Sportaréna ). Between 1983 and 1988 he was Secretary General of the MOB (Magyar Olimpiai Bizottság, Hungarian Olympic Committee ). In 1983 he became a member of the IOC. This period also saw the boycott of the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, at which all involved communist bloc countries including Hungary falls. Only the neighboring Romania allowed his athletes to travel to the games in the United States. In 1986 he became Secretary General of the MOB. In 1990 he was elected president of the Olympic Committee, a position he still holds today. He was the vice president of 1995 to 1999. Since he works there as President of the Sports and Environment Commission (since 1995 ) and as Chief of Protocol ( since 1999). In 2001 he applied for the post of president of the IOC, Jacques Rogge, but lost.

Schmitt has taught at the Sports University in Budapest. He is married to the gymnast Katalin Makray that in Tokyo won a silver medal at the Olympic Games in 1964. They have three daughters.

Political career

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

A year later he joined the renewed conservative Fidesz MPSZ a ( Fidesz - Magyar Polgári Szövetség, Fidesz - Hungarian Civic Union) and was elected Vice President. His MOB position he retained, which earned him some criticism - some MOB members came from. In the European elections in 2004, he was the top candidate of 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 elected after the European elections of 2009, the Deputy Speaker of Parliament.

However, he gave up his seat in the European Parliament after he had reached a mandate in the Hungarian Parliament with the Hungarian parliamentary election of 2010 to No. 2 in the Fidesz list. On 14 May 2010 Schmitt was elected President of the Hungarian Parliament.

On 29 June 2010 Schmitt was elected as the new Hungarian President. With his nomination one week before the election, Fidesz was moved away from the incumbent president, the non-party Laszlo Solyom. Schmitt's election was considered safe because the party had the required two -thirds majority in Parliament. He received 263 votes; on his only opponent, Socialist András Balogh, accounted for only 59 votes. Even before his presidential election, he has pledged full allegiance to the Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. Schmitt signed in 20 months without question more than 360 laws.

Loss of a doctoral degree and resignation as president

On January 11, 2012 reported the online edition of the Hungarian magazine HVG, Schmitt had 180 of the 215 pages of his doctoral work has been copied in 1992 from 1987 in Lausanne written in French study of the Bulgarian sports scientist Nikolai Georgiev. The presidential spokesperson rejected the allegation. According to its statement Schmitt and Georgiev had published several studies in close cooperation. The two are said to have used the same sources in the processing of Georgiews study and Schmitt's thesis. On January 19, 2012, reported that Schmitt had written more pages from a book of the Hamburg sociologist Klaus Heinemann without identification and acknowledgment of source.

On March 29, 2012, the Senate of the Semmelweis University recognized ( SOTE ) in Budapest Schmitt doctoral degrees from after a commission of inquiry confirmed the accusations of plagiarism, which had now, however, awarded the main fault in the SOTE integrated University of Physical Culture, as these are the plagiarized work is not might have expected. The Hungarian opposition demanded Schmitt's resignation and organized demonstrations, Prime Minister Orbán assured the president of his support, but also in Orban's Fidesz party calls for his resignation were heard. Then Schmitt explained due to the plagiarism scandal April 2, 2012 that he will retire as president. Tivadar Tulassay, the rector of the SOTE, also resigned because since the doctoral withdrawing confidence from the competent ministry in him " faded noticeably " was.

International sporting success

• Single: World Cup winner (1971 )

• Olympic champion (1968, 1972)
• World Champion (1970, 1971)
• World Championship silver (1969, 1973)
• Bronze medalist (1967, 1974, 1975 )