The incoming prime minister had defended the appointment just days earlier, calling Márton Melléthei-Barna’s professional credentials “unquestionable.”
Márton Melléthei-Barna withdrew his candidacy to become justice minister in Hungary’s incoming government on Thursday night following criticism over his family ties to incoming Prime Minister Péter Magyar.
The lawyer — who is married to Magyar’s sister, Anna Ilona Melléthei-Barna — said he was stepping aside to avoid undermining public confidence in the country’s political transition. “To ensure that not even the slightest shadow is cast on the transition, I consulted with Péter Magyar, and we agreed that it would best serve the interests of the country and the TISZA government” if another candidate took the role, he wrote in a Facebook post.
Melléthei-Barna insisted his appointment would have been “unassailable from legal, political, moral and human perspectives,” but acknowledged that his “family and friendship ties with the Prime Minister” had become a distraction at a sensitive political moment.
The reversal comes less than a week after Magyar publicly defended his decision to appoint his brother-in-law to one of the most powerful posts in the Hungarian government. Calling Melléthei-Barna’s professional competence “unquestionable,” the prime minister-designate argued concerns about nepotism were understandable, but manageable.
Magyar also said his sister — who is a sitting judge in the Pest Central District Court — would step down from the bench “to avoid even the appearance of an intertwining of branches of power.”
Magyar unveiled his first ministerial picks on April 20, days after ousting Viktor Orbán in Hungary’s April 12 election and ending the nationalist leader’s 16-year grip on power.
Following Melléthei-Barna’s withdrawal, Magyar on Friday announced he had nominated Márta Görög, dean of the Faculty of Law and Political Sciences at the University of Szeged, for the justice minister post. The jurist is a regional president of the Hungarian Bar Association and a member of the division of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences specializing in legal matters.
Hungary’s new parliament convenes on Saturday for an inaugural session in which Magyar is expected to be formally appointed as prime minister.