The once national radical formation led by Márton Gyöngyösi is preparing to abandon the name Jobbik. We previously showed that the founder of the Soros University and a key figure in MDF's left-wing turn emerged behind the name change. At the same time, Zoltán Kész, who has excellent overseas connections, also works as a consultant at the institute writing Jobbik's new strategy. It was finished a few years ago in the USA, when Jobbik was still shouting about the danger.

The name of Zoltán Kész, an English teacher from Veszprém who completed part of his studies in the USA, became nationally known in 2015, when he won the parliamentary election in Veszprém as an independent candidate with the support of the left-liberal parties. He achieved his success at that time, among other things, against the Jobbik candidate.

In February 2015, Magyar Nemzet presented some of the previous positions of the liberal Kész in several articles, such as the fact that he previously supported the privatization of healthcare and education:

many people in the Free Market Foundation would say that primary education is still included, secondary education is still included, that the role of the state, health care is included as a state role. Personally, like Zoltán Kész, I say no

he said at the time. In 2015, Magyar Nemzet also wrote about Kész Hungary's use of anti-Semitic media and the return of the Nazis in his lectures held mainly in American venues. A recording of a 2014 event by Kész, in which he openly called Jobbik anti-Semitic and anti-Gypsy, is still available on a video-sharing portal. In fact, he compared them to Hitler: "(Jobbik - ed.) is very popular among young people. (You can see it from 26:40 in the recording below:)

In addition to all this, the right-wing party paper Barikád presented several anti-Semitic, anti-Israel front pages, criticizing the fact that the newspaper can be freely purchased, and also projected an image of a bald Nazi to its audience. The photo was most likely taken at a Jobbik rally, Kés also hinted to the audience. Last but not least, Kész presented several memes that he and his colleagues produced about Jobbik, primarily mocking the party's commitment to turul.

Returning to the political career of our protagonist, Kész was not re-elected in 2018. Although he was again supported by the left, he lost by around 18 percent to the Fidesz candidate Péter Ovádi. At the same time, this did not mean the end of his political career, as he could soon be found at Péter Márki-Zay's side, as a member of the presidency of the Everyone's Hungary Movement.

Many people may remember that Kész and Márki-Zay visited the US State Department in 2019.

The trip was organized for several weeks, Zoltán Kész's background in America and his connection with the Soros network was already a well-documented story in the Hungarian press. Speaking to 168 Óra about the visit, Péter Márki-Zay asked his negotiators to help the opposition work, as it has done several times in the past. Márki-Zay also specifically talked about fundraising in connection with the overseas trip.

However, the alliance between Kés and Márki-Zay did not last long after the losing 2022 election.

In May, Kész warned Péter Márki-Zay that the money left over from the donations collected in the campaign must be returned to their donors, if it is used for other purposes, it is considered theft. He was also ready to warn that using the grants given by the donors clearly tied to a purpose other than for the purpose - for example to build a party out of it - is theft, which no one in the MMM will tolerate. Márki-Zay answered this - among other things - by saying that he thought that Zoltán Kész saw the change of government as a business issue, and that he could also imagine that he wanted to get a position.

At the end of May, the content of an internal MMM letter written by Péter Márki-Zay to his colleagues was made public. In it, he stated: "Since the elections, but especially in the last week, I have received many attacks in the press. I suspected the interests of the opposition parties were behind them, but now it turned out that this was organized by our fellow member Zoltán Kész, among others. According to Kati Lukácsi, the Zolis (with Zoli Somogyi) want to build a new party themselves with serious business supporters, but without me, in fact, according to them, I stand in the way of this endeavor".

Although Kész and Somogyi have not founded a party since then, the Civitas Institute, which also operates with their participation, became the strategic designer of Jobbik's change of direction and name.

Source and full article: Magyar Nemzet

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