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. An English translation of the book, ''Post-Communist Mafia State: The Case of Hungary'', was published in 2016.

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 Imre Mécs (4 September 1933 – 19 January 2023) was a Hungarian politician. Following the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, he was sentenced to death, then his sentence was mitigated to a prison sentence. He was released in 1963 and worked as an e ...

. 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 A faculty is a division within a university or college comprising one subject area or a group of related subject areas, possibly also delimited by level (e.g. undergraduate). In American usage such divisions are generally referred to as colleges ...

of the

Eötvös Loránd University Eötvös Loránd University ( hu, Eötvös Loránd Tudományegyetem, ELTE) 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 Hung ...

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 A faculty is a division within a university or college comprising one subject area or a group of related subject areas, possibly also delimited by level (e.g. undergraduate). In American usage such divisions are generally referred to as colleges ...

of the

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).

References

Biography

1952 births Living people Alliance of Free Democrats politicians Education ministers of Hungary Members of the National Assembly of Hungary (1990–1994) Members of the National Assembly of Hungary (1994–1998) Members of the National Assembly of Hungary (1998–2002) Members of the National Assembly of Hungary (2002–2006) Members of the National Assembly of Hungary (2006–2010) Hungarian Jews Politicians from Budapest {{Hungary-politician-stub