9 Facts About Viktor Orban

1. In September 1992, Viktor Orban was elected vice chairman of the Liberal International.

2. From April 1996, Viktor Orban was chairman of the Hungarian national committee of the New Atlantic Initiative.

3. On 18 April 1993, Viktor Orban became the first president of Fidesz, replacing the national board that had served as a collective leadership since its founding.

4. On 16 June 1989, Viktor Orban gave a speech in Heroes' Square, Budapest, on the occasion of the reburial of Imre Nagy and other national martyrs of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution.

5. At the college, Viktor Orban edited the social science journal Szazadveg and was one of the key figures among the radical students.

6. The first members of the party, including Viktor Orban, were mostly students from the Bibo Istvan College for Advanced Studies who opposed the Communist regime.

7. On 30 March 1988, Viktor Orban was one of the founding members of Fidesz and served as its first spokesperson.

8. In 1989, Viktor Orban received a scholarship from the Soros Foundation to study political science at Pembroke College, Oxford.

9. Under his leadership, Viktor Orban shifted Fidesz away from its original centre-right, classical liberal, pro-European integration platform toward right-wing national conservatism.