Zsuzsanna Szelényi
Zsuzsanna is foreign policy specialist, former politician, author and founding director of the CEU Democracy Institute Leadership Academy. Before joining the CEU Democracy Institute, Zsuzsanna Szelényi was Richard von Weizsäcker fellow at the Robert Bosch Academy in Berlin and Europe’s Future Fellow of the Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen. She is conducting research on polarization and autocratization as threats to democracy in the context of the future of the European Union.
Between 2014-2018 Ms Szelényi has been a liberal Member of Parliament in Hungary, covering foreign policy, migration, and constitutional affairs.
Before rejoining politics in 2012 in Hungary, Ms Szelenyi served at the Council of Europe for fifteen years advising governments and NGOs on conflict management, human rights education, and human development issues. Between 2010-2013 she worked as a human development consultant for international organizations in various Central European and North African countries.
Ms. Szelenyi started her career as a member of Fidesz, a youth party at the régime change in Hungary in 1988. As a Member of Parliament, she was dealing with international and migration affairs. She left politics in 1994 for a professional career. In 2012 she returned to Hungarian politics in a new party, Together and served for another six years.
Her book ‘Tainted Democracy, Viktor Orbán and the Subversion of Hungary’ was listed among the best books in 2023 by Foreign Affairs.
