© Marton Szilvia

The party leadership would know the answer. Peter Szijjarto, who is in charge of communications, offered me the opportunity to stand in for him for a few weeks. I tried to do it in my own way.

You refer to Peter Szijjarto as "the head of communications," even though he is younger than you. Even on your ultra-modern blog you write in classically styled Hungarian prose. But Viktor Orban, whose primacy on the Right is unquestioned, does not have a blog. Don't you want to encourage him to roll up his sleaves?

It only works if it comes from within, if someone feels they would like to be a blogger. You can't force it. If he asked my opinion, I'd say it was his decision. If he wants to blog, he should blog. My advisers would not have been able to persuade me to launch a blog if I had not been keen on the idea.

You'd never do anything because it was politically useful?

I know a politician blogger from Szekesfehervar who launched his blog a few weeks after me, during the campaign. After the campaign he hardly wrote a line, and since July he's written nothing. My conclusion is that his advisers told him he had to because Cser-Palkovics did. But it didn't interest him, so he stopped. The problem is that he was unfair to his readers, because he didn't conclude the diary, he didn't even explain why he ended it.

We're envious of those Szekesfehervar insiders who must know who you're talking about. But this is that world of high politics which you would surely never have reached if you hadn't been such a successful bill-posting activist at the age of 15.

Some were much better than me. I remember sticking up fliers in 1990 with a friend. We waited for the Hungarian Democratic Forum and the Free Democrats to stick up their posters, and then we'd turn up at night...

And stuck yours on top of theirs?

I can confess to it now. That's just what we did. Next to them as well. They were good times.

What did your family say? The older generation didn't accept Fidesz immediately. Were there conflicts at home? Did you have to hide your political leanings?

I boasted of them, because my parents were still hesitating between Fidesz and the Free Democrats in 1990. They even voted Free Democrat once. From 1994, though, they stuck to Fidesz.

So you fulfilled Viktor Orban's famous request that "everyone should bring another person". Maybe the question is pointless: do you make friends with people of different political persuasions?

I have friends who voted for me as an individual candidate this spring and for the Socialist Party's list. I think something is very wrong if politics poisons a friendship. It was good for me to work outside politics for eight years after finishing university. I got used to there being a Socialist, a Free Democrat or even a far right voter in the room next to me - but we all got on with each other.

We would love to find that tranquil isle on which you live. How do you do it? Are things less Fidesz at home or among your friends?

I'm always arguing with my friends about local politics, but I tend to be the conciliator. We avoid national politics, and if it nonetheless comes up, we switch on the television and watch some sport.

Then we don't understand what you see in full-time politics, since there are few professions less respected nowadays. Maybe a Budapest Transport ticket inspector. Does it pay so well?

I'm certainly no richer for changing career. A little extra money makes little difference if I have to spend more on cars and telephones.

You'll have to put up a strong fight in Szekesfehervar to make sure you don't have to repeat what happened after the last elections: elegantly, openly congratulating your Socialist rival.

If I had made it into the second round, everything would have been different. But Tihamer Warvasovszky won in the first round in 2002. It was a huge disappointment, but I felt most sorry for my several hundred activists.

How do you deal with defeat? What did you do when you lost out in competitive tennis?

In tennis I always congratulated my opponent, while feeling angry at myself.

ANDRÁS LINDNER - ZOLTÁN HORVÁTH