Zsuzsanna Szelényi is a liberal Member of Parliament in Hungary. She covers foreign and security policy, European politics, migration, constitutional affairs and gender issues. She is member of the Mercator European Dialogue and the European Reformists program, both projects work on the future of the European Union.
Before rejoining to politics in 2012 in Hungary, Ms Szelenyi spent most of her career at the international arena. For fourteen years she served at the Council of Europe advising governments and NGOs on conflict management, human rights and human development issues. Between 2010-2013 she worked as human development consultant for international organizations in various Central European and North African countries. Ms. Szelenyi started her career as founding member of Fidesz, a youth party at the régime change in Hungary in 1988. She became Member of Parliament of the first freely elected Parliament, where she was dealing with international and migration affairs. She left politics in 1994 and had a professional career at the Council of Europe. In 2012 she returned to the Hungarian politics for the call of former Prime Minister Gordon Bajnai, who formed a new party, Together. Ms Szelenyi completed studies at the Global Masters of Arts Program (GMAP) within the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in Boston (USA) in International Politics and Economics. She holds an MA of Psychology of the University of Eotvos Lorand, Budapest, (Hungary), and an MA of International Relations of the Corvinus University, Budapest, (Hungary) She holds various decision-making functions in several non-governmental organizations. She lives in Budapest with her husband and three children.