Hungary
What was the nationality of Pál Schmitt from Aug 1949 to Oct 1990?
Pál Schmitt Pál Schmitt ( ; born 1942 ) is a Hungarian Olympic fencer and politician who served as President of Hungary from 2010 to 2012 . Schmitt was a successful fencer in his youth , winning two gold medals at the Summer Olympics . Later , he served as an ambassador during the 1990s and was a Vice President of the European Parliament from 2009 to 2010 . After briefly serving as Speaker of the National Assembly of Hungary in 2010 , Schmitt was elected as President of Hungary in a 263 to 59 vote in the Parliament of Hungary . He was sworn in as president on 2010 . On 2 April 2012 , Schmitt announced to the Hungarian Parliament his resignation as president , following the outbreak of a controversy surrounding his 1992 doctoral dissertation . Personal life . Born on 13 May 1942 in Budapest to a middle-class family , he graduated from high school in 1960 and later studied domestic trade at Karl Marx University of Economics , from which he graduated in 1965 . Sporting career . Schmitt started a successful fencing career in 1955 competing for MTK-VM . After winning two Hungarian Championship titles in individual competitions he participated as part of the Hungarian National Fencing Team 130 times between 1965 and 1977 . He won the team épée gold medal at the 1968 and 1972 Summer Olympics . He also won team and individual World Championships in fencing , and collected several second and third-place finishes until his active career ended in 1977 . He later became the Chief of Protocol of the International Olympic Committee ( IOC ) and presided over the World Olympians Association between 1999 and 2007 . Political career . Between 1983 and 1989 , Schmitt was the general secretary of the Hungarian Olympic Committee and under-secretary of sports between 1981 and 1990 . In 1989 after the End of Communism in Hungary he became president of the Hungarian Olympic Committee . He later became a diplomat , serving as Hungarys ambassador to Spain ( 1993–1997 ) and Switzerland ( 1999–2002 ) . While in Spain he was also accredited to Andorra from 1995 . In 2002 he ran for the position of mayor of Budapest , but his independent candidacy also supported by Fidesz was unsuccessful . In 2003 , he became a deputy president of Fidesz . He led the party list of Fidesz in the 2009 European elections in Hungary and was elected as a Member of the European Parliament with the Fidesz – Hungarian Civic Union , to the Bureau of the European Peoples Party and was vice-chair of the European Parliaments Committee on Culture and Education . Schmitt chaired the Delegation to the EU–Croatia Joint Parliamentary Committee . On 2009 he was elected one of the 14 Vice-Presidents of the European Parliament . He became the Speaker of the National Assembly of Hungary after the Hungarian parliamentary election in 2010 . President of Hungary . In the 2010 Hungarian presidential election , Schmitt was elected President of Hungary by the National Assembly , for a term commencing on . He succeeded László Sólyom . He was elected with the support of the Fidesz and Christian Democratic Peoples ( KDNP ) parties , receiving 263 out of 322 votes . András Balogh of the Socialist Party received 59 votes . Schmitt had been the deputy president of Fidesz and the speaker of the Hungarian Parliament . From the first free elections in 1990 , the nominating party has typically picked one of its high-ranking members for president : for example the SZDSZ nominated Árpád Göncz , who was a founding member of the Alliance of Free Democrats ( SZDSZ ) . The previous MSZP governments nominee was Katalin Szili , an MSZP member who was the then speaker of the Hungarian Parliament . Schmitt signaled a positive relationship with the Fidesz-KDNP government , saying : In the current situation , when we undertake rebuilding the country economically , socially and morally , it is imperative that the president get along with the prime minister , as well as all leaders and government members . Schmitt said he did not intend to take an obstructionist stance towards the government , and sought a more active role in the political process such as the drafting of the countrys new constitution . After taking office , Schmitt resigned all posts and offices previously held . Soon after his election Schmitt came under heavy attack from some opposition parties , that refused to attend the presidential inauguration , citing high costs and a late invitation . Drafting of a new constitution began in 2010 , and was finalized by 11 April 2011 , being adopted by Parliament on 18 April . Schmitt signed the new constitution into law on 25 April and it went into effect on 1 January 2012 . As a supporter of the second cabinet of Viktor Orbán , already it was probable before his appointment that the presidential position is his reversioner . This confirmed that he proclaimed it at the time of the starting of his presidential activity , he wants to be man of the people , and would like to favour and help the current governments work . He created a sensation by personally identifying himself with the governments politics repeatedly in an interview with Time on 15 October 2010 . In particular , the subject of the last sentence was we , the government . The interview in its entirety can be found on the website of the Office of the President . In November 2010 , during a presidential speech he declared one of his major goals to be the preservation and fostering of the Hungarian language and stressed that this would be made compulsory by law . However , after this speech the website of the Office of the President published statements that were full of grammatical and stylistic errors and were ridiculed by the general public . By 31 December 2010 , Schmitt had signed nearly one hundred bills which had been voted on by the National Assembly ; he did not send any none back for consideration by the parliament , nor submit any to the Constitutional Court for judicial review . Academic misconduct and resignation . In 1992 Pál Schmitt defended his dissertation for a doctor of philosophy degree summa cum laude at the Testnevelési Egyetem ( University of Physical Education ) . In the year 2000 , this institution was merged into Budapests Semmelweis University to become one of its Faculties . On 11 January 2012 , the website of the Hungarian magazine Heti Világgazdaság accused Schmitt of plagiarizing the work of a Bulgarian sport expert in his doctoral dissertation . Nikolay Georgievs Analyse du programme olympique ( des Jeux d’Olympiade ) had been finished in 1987 , and Schmitts dissertation , completed in 1992 , appears to be almost entirely a translation of this work . The accusation was denied by the Office of the President , which explained that Schmitt and Georgiev were friends and had worked together , from the same sources . Additional plagiarized sources , including 17 pages written by the German sport sociologist Klaus Heinemann , were identified later . Semmelweis University announced that a fact-finding committee would investigate the matter . The fact-finding committees report , issued on 27 March , confirmed the plagiarism ( word-by-word translations of unusually large extent ) , but blamed the Testnevelési Egyetem for not revealing the copied sources , and fell short of putting any blame on Schmitt ( the author may have thought that his dissertation satisfied the requirements ) . However , a minority report was issued by the single non-faculty member of the committee , which called for the revocation of Schmitts doctoral degree . On 29 March 2012 the Senate of Semmelweis University decided to revoke the degree . On 2 April 2012 Schmitt announced his resignation as president , saying that he felt the plagiarism debate had divided the country . He reiterated that his conscience was clear , vowed that he would complete a PhD program , and threatened to launch a lawsuit against Semmelweis University . On 15 May 2013 , Schmitt formally surrendered his doctorate after an academic remedy committee declared that his thesis did not meet the criteria , either in terms of content or formal requirements . On 22 March 2014 , Schmitt said in a short interview that he had given up his plans for graduating as a PhD , but instead would write a monograph on the effects of sports on the environment and sustainable development , which would have been the theme of the promised degree thesis . After presidency . In October 2015 , Schmitt was appointed chairman at the first meeting of the EUs Sports Diplomacy Advisory Group , which was established by the Hungarian European Commissioner for Education , Culture , Youth and Sport , Tibor Navracsics . In January 2016 , Schmitt was appointed Chairman of the Budapest 2024 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games Bid Committee . The committee was nicknamed the Guardians of the Olympic Bid , as Schmitt stated that it is a decisive step in Hungarys bid to host the 2024 Summer Olympics and 2024 Summer Paralympics . The committee was put together in order to promote efforts inside and outside of Hungary and it is made up of 23 members from various sport , business and public backgrounds working together to monitor , review and find a strategic direction for the bidding process . The Hungarian Olympic Committee re-elected Krisztián Kulcsár in June 2020 , as well as other appointments including that of Schmitt to the executive body as representative of the IOC . International Olympic Committee ( IOC ) . Schmitt entered the IOC in 1983 , where he was Vice-Chairman of the IOC Athletes Commission until 1988 . He was also member of the Study for the Preparation of the Olympic Games Commission from 1985 to 1991 , the Coordination for the 1992 Winter Olympics Commission from 1989 to 1992 , the Coordination for the 1994 Winter Olympics Commission from 1989 to 1994 . He was member of the Eligibility Commission from 1989 to 1992 , the Olympic Movement Commission from 1993 to 1999 , the Olympic Collectors Commission from 1994 to 1995 , the Council of the Olympic Order Commission from 1995 to 1999 , as well as a member of the IOC 2000 ( Executive Committee ) in 1999 . Schmitt was also a member of the International Relations Commission from 2005 to 2013 , a Delegate Member for Protocol from 1999 to 2010 , and part of the Public Affairs and Social Development through Sport Commission starting in 2015 . From 1991 to 1999 he was Member of the Executive Board , then from 1995 to 2013 he was Chairman of the Sport and Environment Commission , as well as being Vice-President of the IOC from 1995 to 1999 .