Sándor Pintér (born 3 July 1948) is a Hungarian

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

and former top

police officer A police officer (also called a policeman and, less commonly, a policewoman) is a warranted law employee of a police force. In most countries, "police officer" is a generic term not specifying a particular rank. In some, the use of the ...

. He served as

Minister of the Interior An interior minister (sometimes called a minister of internal affairs or minister of home affairs) is a cabinet official position that is responsible for internal affairs, such as public security, civil registration and identification, emergency ...

from 1998 to 2002 and since 2010, in

Viktor Orbán Viktor Mihály Orbán (; born 31 May 1963) is a Hungarian politician who has served as prime minister of Hungary since 2010, previously holding the office from 1998 to 2002. He has presided over Fidesz since 1993, with a brief break between 20 ...

's cabinets.

Biography

Pintér was born and raised in Budapest. He graduated from the Police Officer College ( hu, Rendőrtiszti Főiskola) at Budapest in 1978. He worked in the criminal-investigation divisions of the national, Budapest and Pest County Police Departments between 1978 and 1991. He received degree at Law and Political Sciences in

Eötvös Loránd University Eötvös Loránd University ( hu, Eötvös Loránd Tudományegyetem, ELTE) is a Hungarian public research university based in Budapest. Founded in 1635, ELTE is one of the largest and most prestigious public higher education institutions in Hung ...

in 1986 at age of 38. Before his entry into the political arena after retirement, he worked as a

. After entering the police service in 1972 and rising through the ranks, he reached top positions in the

Hungarian police Hungarian may refer to: * Hungary, a country in Central Europe * Kingdom of Hungary, state of Hungary, existing between 1000 and 1946 * Hungarians, ethnic groups in Hungary * Hungarian algorithm, a polynomial time algorithm for solving the assignme ...

, such as Chief of the Budapest police in 1991, and then Chief of the National Police between 1991 and 1996.

Political career

He was a member of the

Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party The Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party ( hu, Magyar Szocialista Munkáspárt, MSZMP) was the ruling Marxist–Leninist party of the Hungarian People's Republic between 1956 and 1989. It was organised from elements of the Hungarian Working Peop ...

(MSZMP) before the

transition to democracy Democratization, or democratisation, is the transition to a more democratic political regime, including substantive political changes moving in a democratic direction. It may be a hybrid regime in transition from an authoritarian regime to a full ...

in Hungary (1990). Allegedly, between 1993 and 1996, Dietmar Clodo gave large sums of money from

Semion Mogilevich Semion Yudkovich Mogilevich ( uk, Семен Юдкович Могилевич, Semén Yúdkovych Mohylévych ; born June 30, 1946) is a Ukrainian-born Russian organized crime boss. He quickly built a highly structured criminal organization, in ...

to numerous Hungarian politicians including Pinter in 1996/1997. Sándor Pintér served as Minister of the Interior in the first cabinet of Viktor Orbán from 1998 to 2002. He worked as businessman between two periods as Minister of the Interior, operating security, economic-consultation and travel companies. He was appointed Minister of the Interior again in 2010. His most prominent tasks are the suppression of the delinquency and the restoration of the police's efficiency. The secret services' single part was also at his disposal until 2022. Pintér said that they had reviewed the changes done at the police in 2010, and also had set the tasks to be accomplished during the year of 2011 in order to improve the police work to achieve a better state of public order and security in the country. As Minister of the Interior, he was superior of the

Constitution Protection Office The Constitution Protection Office ( Hungarian: "''Alkotmányvédelmi Hivatal''", "''AH''") is a Hungarian internal security intelligence agency, formerly known as ''Nemzetbiztonsági Hivatal'' (en. Office of National Security). Its primary r ...

Director General, domestic criminal-investigative and

counterintelligence Counterintelligence is an activity aimed at protecting an agency's intelligence program from an opposition's intelligence service. It includes gathering information and conducting activities to prevent espionage, sabotage, assassinations or ot ...

agency,

Counter Terrorism Centre Counter Terrorism Centre (CTC) ( hu, Terrorelhárítási Központ, TEK) is a Hungarian government agency responsible for national and international counter terrorism including detection, prevention and interruption. The agency has a police tac ...

Director General, special weapons and tactics,

hostage rescue A hostage is a person seized by an abductor in order to compel another party, one which places a high value on the liberty, well-being and safety of the person seized, such as a relative, employer, law enforcement or government to act, or refr ...

agency, National Protective Service Director General, organization completing tasks such as: crime prevention and detection, lifestyle monitoring, integrity testing and Special Service for National Security Director General, agency – provider of the technical background needed to clandestine collection of information. Pintér served as interior minister in the

second The second (symbol: s) is the unit of time in the International System of Units (SI), historically defined as of a day – this factor derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes and finally to 60 seconds ...

third Third or 3rd may refer to: Numbers * 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3 * , a fraction of one third * Second#Sexagesimal divisions of calendar time and day, 1⁄60 of a ''second'', or 1⁄3600 of a ''minute'' Places * 3rd Street (d ...

, fourth and fifth Orbán governments. After the 2022 parliamentary election, secret services transferred to the portfolio of the Prime Minister's Cabinet Office headed by

Antal Rogán Antal Rogán (born 29 January 1972) is a Hungarian economist and politician, who served as Mayor of Belváros-Lipótváros (fifth district of Budapest) from 2006 to 2014. He became a member of the National Assembly (MP) in the 1998 parliamen ...

, while the Ministry of the Interior headed by Sándor Pintér received the health and education portfolio.

Personal life

He is married. His wife is Ildikó Pintérné Eötvös and has three daughters, Hajnalka, Csillag and Ildikó.Magyar Narancs
- Jenő Böszörményi - Őrzés, védés – Pintér Sándor cégeladásai">Magyar Narancs">Magyar Narancs
- Jenő Böszörményi - Őrzés, védés – Pintér Sándor cégeladásai/ref>

Notes

References

Pintér Sándor a VoksCentrumon
1948 births Living people Politicians from Budapest Hungarian police officers Hungarian Interior Ministers Members of the Fourth Orbán Government Members of the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party Members of the fifth Orbán government {{Hungary-politician-stub