Introduction
László Botka (born February 21, 1973) is a Hungarian politician. Botka is a member of the Hungarian Socialist Party and the current mayor of Szeged.
Biography
László Botka was born on February 21, 1973 in Tiszaföldvár, Hungary, as the first of two sons of Lajos Botka and Julianna Mária Lukács, both secondary school teachers. He attended the Varga Katalin Secondary School in Szolnok. In 1991, he moved to Szeged to study at the Faculty of Law of the University of Szeged, from which he graduated in 1997. He joined the Hungarian Socialist Party in 1991. Between 1992 and 1994, he was leader of the socialist youth organization. In 1994, he was elected to represent Szeged in the National Assembly of Hungary, becoming the youngest of the MPs. He lost his seat in the general elections held in 1998, but he was re-elected in 2002, 2006 and 2010. In 2002, he was elected to Mayor of Szeged; he was re-elected in 2006, 2010 and 2014.
Upon the resignation of Attila Mesterházy following the disastrous 2014 European Parliament election, Botka was elected interim leader of the Socialist Party as chairman of the organization's National Election Committee.