The Brussels Report Podcast

Welcome to the new episode of the Brussels Report podcast. My name is Peter Klepper. I'm the editor-in-chief

of Brussels Report and I'm delighted to have as my guest today, Zoltan Keshe. He is a former

member of parliament from Hungary. And at the moment, he's the director of operations of the Civitas Institute,

as well as the honorary president of the Free Market Foundation in Hungary. So he's a real fighter

for liberty in Hungary. And I'm really delighted to have him with me here in this podcast because of course Hungary is on the forefront

of let's say the debate within the European Union on rule of law and and sort of how to deal with

member states that are perceived to be let's say backsliding in terms of the rule of law.

And perhaps in the case of Hungary, you could also say backsliding in terms of economic reform,

the country that did a lot of good after communism collapsed.

So, Zoltan, welcome.

Well, thank you, Peter, and I'm really honored to be here on your show.

Great to have you. So maybe first, to continue a little bit to introduction,

maybe you should explain how you became an MP and how you basically grabbed the super majority of Victor Orban, if I'm not mistaken.

Well, that was six years ago, unfortunately a long time ago, and that was a by-election

for one seat in my constituency.

And I decided to run as an independent, and I was supported by six parties, and I decided to run as an independent and I was supported by six parties and I managed

to defeat the pro-government or the governing parties candidate which at the time meant that they

didn't have a two-thirds majority anymore for three years only because after that in 2018 they

won again with a two-thirds majority and we are looking

at next year's election one one of the things that is in focus whether they will have another

two-thirds majority next year or not okay interesting well still quite a great accomplishment

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