Hungarian Socialist Party's (MSZP) Delegation Visits Washington

Hungarian Members of Parliament from the governing Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP) visited Washington, D.C. between January 22 and 26, 2008. The delegation was led by Attila Mesterházy, vice-chairman of the MSZP caucus and the member of the MSZP board responsible for foreign policy. Delegation members also included László Kocsi, deputy chairman of the European Affairs Committee of the Hungarian Parliament; Vilmos Szabó, deputy chairman of the Foreign Affairs and Hungarians Abroad Committee of the Hungarian Parliament and Gábor István Harangozó, member of the European Parliament. This was the parliamentarians’ first visit to the US capital in their capacity as party politicians.

The Hungarian parliamentarians’ busy schedule in Washington, D.C. included a visit to the Congress where they met Congressmen Lincoln Diaz-Balart and Robert Wexler.

Gábor István Harangozó, Vilmos Szabó, Attila Mesterházy, Rep. Robert Wexler, Amb. Ferenc Somogyi, László Kocsi


The delegation conducted several consultations at the State Department where their interlocutors included acting Assistant Secretaries Kurt Volker and Jonathan Farrar and Deputy Assistant Secretaries Matthew Bryza and David Kramer. They also met Senior Director Damon Wilson at the National Security Council and Nancy Brinker, Chief of Protocol, former ambassador to Budapest.
 

Gábor István Harangozó, Attila Mesterházy, Acting Assistant Secretary Kurt Volker, Vilmos Szabó, Amb. Ferenc Somogyi, László Kocsi


The delegation paid a visit to several think tanks and NGOs, such as the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Heritage Foundation, Center for European Policy Analysis and the National Democratic Institute.

The parliamentarians also met with the leaders of the two major organizations of American Hungarians, the American Hungarian Federation and the Hungarian American Coalition. The latter organized a roundtable discussion at the Kossuth House on the current state of democracy and economy that attracted a large audience.

Before their departure to New York, the delegation as a token of their tribute laid a wreath at the tomb of the former Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Nagy in Herndon, Virginia, at the invitation of the Nagy Ferenc Foundation.
 

Sándor Nagy (President of Nagy Ferenc Foundation), Arthur Nachman (Rotary Club), Richard Downer (Herndon Historical Society), Attila Mesterházy, Vilmos Szabó, Gábor István Harangozó, László Kocsi, Tamás Holló (Vice-President of Nagy Ferenc  Foundation)