With the rank of lieutenant-colonel, Borkai was headmaster of Béri Balogh Ádám Military Secondary School and College from 1999 to 2006 (he was already a teacher there since 1992). He entered the
2006 Hungarian local elections as the candidate of
Fidesz for the mayor of Győr where he gained victory and then re-elected in 2010, 2014, and 2019. Borkai was also a Member of Parliament for Győr (Constituency III,
Győr-Moson-Sopron County) between 2010 and 2014. He worked in the Defense and Law Enforcement Committee. In August 2010, the newly formed Fidesz government, led by Viktor Orbán amended the
Constitution. It ruled that members of the law enforcement or armed forces may not engage in political activity or membership and forbade them to run as candidates in elections for 3 years after having terminated service. The original proposal suggested a 5-year interval. As Zsolt Borkai, then also a lieutenant-colonel of the
Hungarian Defence Forces, would also fall under this category, the government reduced it to three years. Therefore, critics and opposition parties called the amendment as "lex Borkai". As a result, Borkai could run as mayoral candidate in the
Autumn 2010 Hungarian local elections. Borkai said he was not sure that the text of the constitutional amendment had been rewritten for him, but if so, he considered it as an honor.
Controversy Shortly before the
2019 Hungarian local elections, he became a subject of controversy because an anonymous blogger released a video in which Borkai is seen having an
extramarital affair with a young woman on a yacht with numerous others which showed hints at drug use supposedly somewhere on the
Adriatic Sea. Subsequently, other posts released on the same blog alleged that this type of orgy and
cocaine use was a common routine for Borkai, and furthermore, he was linked to a widespread corruption scandal as well on the blog. In response to these issues, Borkai acknowledged that he was present at the event seen on the disclosed materials and apologized for his behavior, but denied the accusations of corruption and drug use. Despite him being able to have himself re-elected by a narrow margin of only 641 votes during the 2019 Hungarian local elections, the incident may have been negatively impacted the election results of Fidesz nationwide. Two days after his re-election, he announced that he had left Fidesz and that from there on he wanted to carry on his job as
independent mayor of Győr. However, less than a month after his re-election, Borkai announced his resignation even as mayor in an open letter to the people of Győr on 6 November 2019, effective on 8 November after the inaugural meeting of the city's General Assembly. At the
2024 Hungarian local elections he attempted to return to politics and ran for mayor again, as leader of his party
Együtt a Jövőnkért Borkaival ("Together with Borkai for Our Future"). This resulted in him splitting the conservative, pro-Fidesz voters between him and incumbent mayor
András Dézsi, which led to a liberal candidate winning the election in a city of mostly conservative voters. Borkai received 27,02% of the votes, and he came in third place behind
Bence Pintér (31,15%) and András Dézsi (30,39%). ==Personal life==