László L. Simon

Poet László L. Simon was a former Fidesz member of parliament and state secretary for culture when Minister Miklós Kásler — with Viktor Orbán's endorsement — appointed him director-general of the Hungarian National Museum effective 31 July 2021, after which he resigned his party-political posts. The appointment drew criticism from museum professionals: a museum staff member said L. Simon's inaugural speech suggested that science was not the museum's job, but rather the presentation of legends, tales, and myths. In his inaugural speech he argued the museum's job included presenting national myths and even figures proven not to have existed alongside scientifically verified fact, which some staff described as reducing the museum to a "fairy-tale museum." In November 2023, Culture Minister János Csák summarily dismissed him after the museum refused to check visitors' ID cards to enforce an age restriction on LGBTQ-themed images in a World Press Photo exhibition; L. Simon maintained the museum had fully complied with its supervising ministry's instructions and broken no law, saying he could acknowledge but not accept the decision. The episode documents both the practice of installing politicians as museum directors and how the institution became an instrument of the government's culture-war legislation.