Ágnes Vadai

Vadai was born in Karcag in 1974.[1] She graduated from the Katalin Varga Bilingual Grammar School in Szolnok in 1992.[1] She then attended the Budapest University of Technology and Economics, where she graduated in 1997 with a degree in International Relations and European Studies.[1] She then worked as a research fellow in international relations, and studied abroad in Spain and the United States. In 1999 she became a graduate student at the Eötvös Loránd University, earning a doctorate in law in 2003.[1] Beginning in 2000 she was a lecturer at the Zrínyi Miklós National Defence University (which later merged with other colleges to become the National University of Public Service), and in 2007 she was appointed professor there.[1]

In 1999, Vadai became a founding member of the Young Left (hu), the youth wing of the Hungarian Socialist Party.[1] In 2000 she became a member of the Karcag municipal leadership of the Hungarian Socialist Party, and in 2004 she joined its national leadership.[1]

Vadai was first elected to parliament in 2002, and was re-elected in 2006, 2010, 2014, and 2018, always affiliated with the Hungarian Socialist party.[2] From July 2007 to April 2009, she was Secretary of State in the Ministry of Defense.[1] In April 2009, she was again appointed Secretary of State in the Ministry of Defense.[1]

Vadai was a founding member of the Democratic Coalition faction of the Hungarian Socialist Party, and after it became an independent political party, she was named its vice president.[3]