Bálint Magyar

Hungarian politician

Bálint Magyar


Minister of Education of Hungary
In office 27 May 2002 – 9 June 2006
Preceded by	József Pálinkás
Succeeded by	István Hiller (Education and Culture)
In office 1 January 1996 – 8 July 1998
Preceded by	Gábor Fodor
Succeeded by	Zoltán Pokorni

Personal details
Born	(1952-11-15) 15 November 1952 (age 71) Budapest, Hungary
Political party	SZDSZ
Spouse	Róza Hodosán
Children	Annamária
Profession	politician

Bálint Magyar (born as János Magyar; 15 November 1952) is a Hungarian politician, who served as Minister of Education between 1996–1998 and between 2002–2006. He was a founding member of the Alliance of Free Democrats.

His book Magyar polip – A posztkommunista maffiaállam (2013) describes modern Hungary as a mafia state.^[1] An English translation of the book, Post-Communist Mafia State: The Case of Hungary, was published in 2016.^[2]^[3]

Family

His paternal grandparents were the journalist Elek Magyar and Berta Kürthy who was granddaughter of the 19th century Hungarian Prime Minister Bertalan Szemere. His father is the writer and theatre manager Bálint Magyar, Sr. His mother, Olga Siklós (b. Schwarcz), was born to a Jewish family in Kolozsvár. Bálint has a sister, Fruzsina who is the wife of Imre Mécs. Bálint Magyar's wife is Róza Hodosán, a former member of the National Assembly of Hungary. They have a daughter, Annamária.

Career

He earned a degree in history from the Faculty of Humanities of the Eötvös Loránd University in 1977. Magyar is a Research Fellow at the Financial Research Institute (since 2010) with a Doctoral degree in Political Economy (1980) from Faculty of Law of the Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest. He has published and edited numerous books on post-communist mafia states since 2013. He was an Open Society Fellow for carrying out comparative studies in this field (2015-2016), Hans Speier Visiting Professor at the New School (2017), and a Senior Fellow at the CEU Institute for Advanced Study (2018-2019). Formerly, he was an activist of the Hungarian anti-communist dissident movement, founder of the Liberal Party of Hungary (SZDSZ, 1988), a Member of the Hungarian Parliament (1990-2010), and the Hungarian Minister of Education (1996-1998, 2002-2006).^[4]

References

Biography
Biography

^ Russia the mafia state Maria Snegovaya on how the ‘rule of the rulers’ supplants the ‘rule of law’, column by Maria Snegovaya (comparing Russia to the Hungarian case), an English translation published by Meduza, 17 December 2015, from the Russian original, Закон правящего вместо права закона, published by Vedomosti, 16 December 2015.
^ According to Amazon.com, viewed 28 January 2016.
^ Magyar, B. lint (1 March 2016). Post-Communist Mafia State: The Case of Hungary. Central European University Press. ISBN 9786155513541.
^ "The Anatomy of Post-Communist Regimes". Retrieved 23 July 2020.

Political offices
Preceded by Gábor Fodor	Minister of Education 1996–1998	Succeeded by Zoltán Pokorni
Preceded by József Pálinkás	Minister of Education 2002–2006	Succeeded by István Hiller
Party political offices
Preceded by Gábor Kuncze	President of the Alliance of Free Democrats 1998–2000	Succeeded by Gábor Demszky