The Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA) has elected Mihály Pósfai as the 22nd president of the institution on Tuesday, 5 May. The geologist and university professor has been a corresponding member of MTA since 2010 and a full member since 2016, and also happens to be a relative of incoming Minister of Interior Gábor Pósfai.

Mihály Pósfai was elected by the 200th General Assembly of MTA, Hungary’s most prestigious academic institution, founded in 1825. His primary field of research is mineralogy, with a particular focus on environmental mineralogy and the study of the properties and formation of magnetic nanocrystals produced in living organisms.

In addition to numerous professional recognitions, he received the Academic Award in 2010. In 2016 he was awarded the Széchenyi Prize for his achievements in environmental mineralogy, particularly his research on magnetic minerals formed in living organisms, as well as for his internationally acclaimed scientific and teaching work. In 2026, he was decorated with the Commander’s Cross of the Hungarian Order of Merit, civil division.

Beyond his academic career, Mihály Pósfai is also related to the incoming Minister of Interior in Hungary’s next government, scheduled to be inaugurated on 9 May. Prime minister-elect Péter Magyar announced last Thursday that he would nominate Gábor Pósfai, who served as the operative director of the Tisza Party, for the position. Gábor Pósfai is a cousin of Mihály Pósfai.

Incoming Minister of Interior Gábor Pósfai PHOTO: Boglárka Bodnár/MTI

While there is no direct institutional link between the ministry and MTA, and the president was elected by the independent general assembly, the family connection between the newly elected MTA president and the incoming interior minister has immediately come under scrutiny in Hungarian media, for a specific reason.

Last week, at the same time as Gábor Pósfai’s nomination became public, Magyar announced that he had selected Tisza’s long-time legal expert, Márton Melléthei-Barna, as Minister of Justice. Melléthei-Barna is one of the core members of the incoming governing party and has known Magyar since their university years, when they were classmates at the Faculty of Law at Pázmány Péter Catholic University, later joining the party in 2024. However, in September 2025, he married Péter Magyar’s sister, becoming his brother-in-law and placing his nomination in an entirely different light, with many interpreting it as a case of nepotism.

Magyar and the Tisza Party have consistently portrayed nepotism as one of the defining problems of the Orbán system, repeatedly criticizing Fidesz for placing politically and personally loyal relatives, friends, and business circles in key state positions. One of Tisza’s core campaign messages was the promise of a more meritocratic, transparent, and professionally based state administration. Magyar defended Melléthei-Barna’s nomination by emphasizing his professional expertise and competence, adding that the family relationship developed after they had already begun working together in Tisza.

In this context, it is unsurprising that family ties such as those between Mihály Pósfai and Gábor Pósfai have come under immediate scrutiny by Hungarian media.

Péter Magyar himself attended the MTA General Assembly a day before Pósfai’s election, where he delivered a ceremonial address outlining a broader political and institutional shift that would affect Hungary’s academic sphere. He argued that ‘without free science, there is no free country’, pledging to ‘restore academic autonomy’ as a cornerstone of governance.

He framed the condition of Hungarian science as a systemic issue, linking weakened institutional independence to declining competitiveness, and warning that research cannot function without stable funding, predictability, and freedom from political interference.

Magyar outlined a reform agenda centred on significantly increasing research and development spending and reintegrating Hungarian science into European cooperation frameworks, while signalling a willingness to resolve longstanding disputes over the research network and institutional governance. He emphasized that future policy decisions would be grounded in scientific evidence rather than political expediency, presenting this as a return to a partnership model between government and academia.

The speech, delivered after remarks by outgoing MTA president Tamás Freund, was positioned as part of a broader reset in the relationship between the state and the scientific community, with Magyar appearing explicitly in his capacity as prime minister-designate. Fun fact: Tamás Freund is also related to Péter Magyar, albeit distantly: the outgoing president of MTA is his mother’s second cousin.

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