Balázs Hidvéghi (born 28 November 1970) is a Hungarian politician. He is a Member of the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the two legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it ...

, former Director of Communications of Fidesz-Hungarian Civic Union, and former MP of the Hungarian Parliament.

In the European Parliament

He has been a Member of the European Parliament since 2019. He is working in the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs. He is also a member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, the Special Committee on Foreign Interference in all Democratic Processes in the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

, including Disinformation, and the Delegation to the EU-UK Parliamentary Partnership Assembly. Until March 2021, as a member of the Hungarian Fidesz delegation, he belonged in the European People's Party parliamentary group. In March 2021, he left the EPP Group together with the other Fidesz MEPs. Since then he has been carrying on his duties as an independent MEP.

In national politics

He has been a member of Fidesz since 1989. In the 1990s he was active in the party's foreign affairs group. In 2004 he became Secretary of the Hungarian People's Party Group in the European Parliament and Political Advisor to

József Szájer József Szájer (born 7 September 1961) is a retired Hungarian politician and former Member of the European Parliament (MEP) of the Fidesz party. He resigned as MEP on 29 November 2020 (effective at the end of December) after having been caug ...

. After the Fidesz victory in 2010, he was appointed Deputy State Secretary for International Affairs and External Economic Relations at the Ministry for National Economy by Prime Minister

Viktor Orbán Viktor Mihály Orbán (; born 31 May 1963) is a Hungarian lawyer and politician who has been the 56th prime minister of Hungary since 2010, previously holding the office from 1998 to 2002. He has also led the Fidesz political party since 200 ...

. In this position he has been in a close working relationship with Minister

György Matolcsy György Huba Matolcsy (born 18 July 1955, Budapest) is a Hungary, Hungarian politician and economist, current governor of the Hungarian National Bank (MNB). He also served as Minister of Finance (Hungary), Minister of National Economy from 2000 ...

. Between 2011-2012 he also chaired the Hungarian OECD National Council. In 2012 he became the party’s Deputy Director responsible for Hungarian communities in the Carpathian basin and the Hungarian diaspora. Between 2013-14 he was also Member of the Hungarian Parliament. During this period, he was Vice-Chairman of the Committee on National Cohesion and a member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs. Between 2014-2016 he was Advisor, then Spokesman to the President of the National Bank of Hungary. In 2016 he joined the campaign team of the governing Fidesz party, and until 2019 was also its Communications Director. In May 2019 he was elected to the European Parliament.

Other activities

Between 1994-1996, he was a teacher at the ELTE Radnóti Miklós High School. Between 1994-2004 he worked first for the Hungarian Civitas Association, then for Civitas International, and later for the Council of Europe.

Studies

He graduated from Petőfi Sándor High School in

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

in 1989, and from the

Eötvös Loránd University Eötvös Loránd University (, ELTE, also known as ''University of Budapest'') 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 ...

in 1995, majoring in English and Hungarian at the School of English and American Studies of the Faculty of Humanities (Eötvös Loránd University). In 1991, he obtained a Certificate in Diplomacy at the Institute for International Studies at the

University of Leeds The University of Leeds is a public research university in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It was established in 1874 as the Yorkshire College of Science. In 1884, it merged with the Leeds School of Medicine (established 1831) and was renamed Y ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. In 2005, he graduated from the

Robert Schuman University The Robert Schuman University (), also known as Strasbourg III or URS, was a university in Strasbourg, Alsace, France. In 2007, there were nearly 10,000 students enrolled at the university, including more than 1,500 foreign students. The university ...

Strasbourg Strasbourg ( , ; ; ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est Regions of France, region of Geography of France, eastern France, in the historic region of Alsace. It is the prefecture of the Bas-Rhin Departmen ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

with a DEA master's degree at the Institute of European Studies.

Family

His parents are both engineers. He is married to Brigitta Hidvéghiné Pulay, a lawyer and a specialist in environmental protection and sustainable development. They live in Budapest with their four children.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hidveghi, Balazs 1970 births Fidesz politicians Members of the National Assembly of Hungary (2010–2014) Fidesz MEPs MEPs for Hungary 2009–2014 MEPs for Hungary 2019–2024 Politicians from Budapest Living people Alumni of the University of Leeds Members of the National Assembly of Hungary (2022–2026)