András Schiffer

Early life

András Schiffer was born in Budapest on 19 June 1971 as the son of journalist Péter Schiffer (born 1943), a former Deputy Director of the Hungarian Financial Supervisory Authority (PSZÁF) and jurist Anna Hajnal. Among his uncles are director Pál Schiffer and Socialist politician János Schiffer, who served as Deputy Mayor of Budapest between 1994 and 2006. His grandfather was Pál Schiffer, Sr., a Member of Parliament and Hungarian Ambassador to Norway. His great-grandfather was Árpád Szakasits, a leading Social Democrat, then Communist political figure also president of Hungary in (1948–1949) and Chairman of the Presidential Council of the People's Republic of Hungary (1949–1950) during Communist rule. Schiffer received his Juris Doctor degree at the Eötvös Loránd University in 1995.

In 1989 he was a member of the short-lived "New Generation Movement" led by Ferenc Gyurcsány. In 1990 he was a founding member of the Young Socialists political movement. He was a leader there until 1992 when he quit that organization. He then worked in the private sector and return to public affairs via the green movement. He became part of the leadership of Védegylet. Védegylet was instrumental in electing László Sólyom for President of Hungary, against the Socialist Speaker of the House, Katalin Szili, Schiffer took a leading role in that campaign personally as well.

Schiffer served as Charge d'Affaires of the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union (HCLU) from 2004 to 2008. He left the legal aid organization in the Summer of 2008.

Political career

In 2008 he founded the Politics Can Be Different movement, which formed into a party in 2009 (LMP party). In the 2010 National Elections in Hungary he was the leader of the LMP party list and thus he was elected as member of the Hungarian Parliament. He resigned as LMP parliamentary group leader in January 2012. He was succeeded by Benedek Jávor.

During the party's congress in November 2012, the Politics Can Be Different decided not to join Together 2014, the electoral alliance of opposition parties and movements led by Gordon Bajnai. As a result, Jávor, a follower of the agreement, resigned from his position of parliamentary group leader. Unlike Jávor, Schiffer did not support the cooperation with Bajnai and the Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP). According to the press Schiffer's group won within the party and eclipsed the other group led by Benedek Jávor and Gergely Karácsony. In the first round, the parliamentary caucus failed to elect its new leader. Schiffer was nominated but rejected in a vote of 7 in favour, 8 against. In addition The platform 'Dialogue for Hungary' was formed within the party on 26 November 2012, with Jávor as one of its founders. The platform gathers those who would back the Together 2014 electoral movement with the aim of "changing the Orbán regime." Later that day Schiffer was elected leader of the LMP parliamentary group for second time.

In January 2013, the LMP's congress rejected against the electoral cooperation with other opposition forces, including Together 2014. As a result, members of LMP's "Dialogue for Hungary" platform announced their decision to leave the opposition party and form a new organization. Benedek Jávor said he eight MPs leaving LMP would keep their parliamentary mandates. They will coordinate with the remaining seven LMP lawmakers in order to keep the parliamentary group operational on some level. Schiffer said the move would not lead to a party split. Less than 10 percent of the party's membership has indicated a desire to leave the party, he said. The leaving MPs established Dialogue for Hungary as a full-fledged party. The eight MPs also left the parliamentary group which then broken up according to the rules of the National Assembly.

Schiffer and Bernadett Szél were elected co-presidents of the LMP during the party's congress on 24 March 2013. The seven MPs of the party were able to re-establish the LMP's caucus on 1 September 2013, after the decision of the Committee on Immunity, Incompatibility and Mandate. Group leader András Schiffer said the newly former parliamentary group of the LMP became the first group in Hungary's history whose majority is female. On 18 July 2015, Schiffer and Szél were re-elected co-presidents of the party.

On 31 May 2016, András Schiffer announced his retirement from politics in an interview in Index.hu. He resigned as co-president of the LMP and leader of its parliamentary group on 1 June, and also added he would return his parliamentary seat on 31 August. Schiffer, referring to the new housing rules unilaterally adopted by ruling party Fidesz, said "the current parliamentary term has clearly demonstrated that we do not have the intellectual atmosphere for politics critical of the system". Schiffer told he would not participate in the next parliamentary election and return to his previous profession as a lawyer.