János Csák, Minister of Culture and Innovation, has resigned.

The minister confirmed the news, and when asked whether he had planned to leave only halfway through the term when he accepted the position, he replied:

“Of course not. When one takes on such an honorable and uplifting position, one strives to fulfill that mandate one hundred percent. This was also the agreement with the Prime Minister, with whom we have a long-standing friendship. So no, it wasn’t planned,” he said.

Csák’s resignation was accepted by the Prime Minister.

He justified his resignation by saying that the tasks the Prime Minister had asked of him were already on track, “in this respect, the work planned for four years was completed in two years. It’s time to pass the baton to the younger generation.”

The Prime Minister asked three things of him, “as he does of every minister: first, to build an effective operating system on the existing one, second, to have programs that span cycles in the areas under my ministry, and third, to have suitable successors, people who are able to lead the areas in a creative way. We have made rapid progress with my colleagues in the past two years in terms of system building and program development.”

Csák said that it is not that he does not enjoy administrative work, because being the minister of the thousand-year-old Hungarian state is a very uplifting and enjoyable job, and he has given it his all. “I would not have made this decision if I did not feel that there is a working system, adequate programs, and if there is not a successor who is able and ready to lead. (…) There are a lot of talented young people working in the Hungarian public administration, they should be given the opportunity. Think about it, I became the CEO of a Hungarian-Irish financial company at the age of thirty, or we first elected Viktor Orbán Prime Minister at the age of thirty-five.”

When asked what he would do next, Csák said that he had not even thought about it until Orbán accepted his resignation. “There are predestinations from my previous life, such as the business sphere, teaching, mentoring, and writing; I don’t think I will come up with something completely new,” he said.

Csák’s successor was appointed on Monday, Balázs Hankó, State Secretary for Higher Education, Vocational Training and Adult Education, became the new Minister of Culture and Innovation.

Analysts had already been talking about the possible resignation of János Csák a few days ago, when they analyzed the balance of power in the leadership of the ruling party after the resignation of Katalin Novák and Judit Varga.

The analysts assessed that there is now more speculation than usual about who has been strengthened and who has been weakened. The crisis situation gives Viktor Orbán the opportunity to reshuffle the cards, but this has not happened yet, only after June 9. The position of Gergely Gulyás, the minister leading the Prime Minister’s Office, has been fundamentally shaken, “it is almost certain that his position will be affected” by the transformation, but the prime minister keeps his colleagues in uncertainty until the last moment. János Lázár seems to be a winner, there are rumors about the departure of János Csák, the minister responsible for culture and innovation, but these questions can only be answered later.

During János Csák’s short ministry, there were several memorable events in Hungarian cultural life. These include the conflicts surrounding the Opera House and the Academy of Music, the difficult situation of independent theaters, and the plans to centralize culture.

László L. Simon, the director of the National Museum, was removed from his position because of the Word Press Photo exhibition, which also featured LGBTQ people, which the government considers terribly dangerous. In contrast, he eventually persuaded Attila Vidnyánszky to remain at the head of the National Theater after two actors were injured during a performance.