Katalin Szili (born May 13, 1956 in Barcs, Hungary) was the Speaker of the National Assembly of Hungary, a post to which she was elected on May 15, 2002. After obtaining a degree in law at Janus Pannonius University, she completed majors in human ecology and political science. She has been a legislator since 1994. Between 1994 and 1998 she was the political secretary of the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Water.
She was the candidate of the Hungarian Socialist Party for presidency in the 2005 Hungarian presidential elections. Szili lost the election on June 7, 2005 to opposition nominee László Sólyom. The Hungarian Constitution prescribes that the President must be elected by the National Assembly of Hungary, thus the victory of the opposition came as something of a surprise. The junior coalition party, the Alliance of Free Democrats (SZDSZ), however, had long emphasized that it would not vote for a partisan President. Szili as a high ranking a member of the Socialist party was considered partisan, the SZDSZ abstained, enabling the more neutral candidate Sólyom (who was originally nominated by a non-governmental organization Védegylet and later supported by the opposition), to win the office. Another reason for the failed nomination was that SZDSZ was not consulted ahead of time and Szili lacked qualifications compared to Sólyom who previously held high office as the president of the Constitutional Court of Hungary. In 2009 Szili was the mayoral candidate of MSZP for the mayor of a major Hungarian city, Pécs. She lost the election to Zsolt Páva.
She became to be considered inner opposition inside the MSZP since 2009. In 2009 Szili resigned from her position as speaker of Parliament, She was succeeded by Béla Katona of MSZP. She formed the Movement of Alliance for the Future in 2010 and had own candidates in some areas in the 2010 Hungarian parliamentary election. Szili was elected to the Parliament of Hungary via the Baranya County Party list where she was chairperson of the local MSZP chapter. After the 2010 local elections, held on October 3, she founded the Social Union and became its first chairperson. As a result, she quit the Hungarian Socialist Party and their parliamentarian group. Continuing the parliamentarian work as formally independent MP. However as an elected parliamentarian she is serving a four year term ending in 2014. Thus the new party Social Union instantly has some representation in Parliament, which is usually not possible for parties having won less than 5% of votes.
In 2011, Szili became member of the Nemzeti Konzultációs Testület (National Consultative body) preparing the new constitution. Later, she presented her own proposal.