Staff

Dr. Péter Krekó
Executive director

Political scientist, social psychologist, disinformation expert. He is a senior fellow at the Washington-based CEPA think tank and a PopBack Fellow at the University of Cambridge. Earlier, he was a guest researcher at the Europe’s Futures - Ideas for Action program of the Vienna-based Institute for Human Sciences (IWM), and a non-resident Associate Fellow at the Johns Hopkins University SAIS Bologna Institute of Policy Research. Peter is an associate professor with habilitation at the Department of Social Psychology at ELTE PPK. During 2016-2017, Péter worked as a Fulbright Visiting Professor in the United States at the Central Eurasian Studies Department of Indiana University. He wrote his PhD dissertation on the social psychology of conspiracy theories in 2014, and he habilitated in 2020. He has been the executive director of Political Capital since 2011. His main areas of expertise are disinformation, Russian political influence in the West, and European populism and radicalism. He was the co-chair of the EU Radicalization Prevention Network PREVENT until 2015. He is the owner of Political Capital. He has written two books: Tömegparanoia, which has been published in two editions, introduces the social psychological foundations of fake news and conspiracy theories in a scientific and informative manner, and The Hungarian Far Right – which he wrote together with Attila Juhász – on the politics of the Hungarian far right after the democratic transition. The latter is published by Ibiden Verlag and distributed by the Columbia University Press.

Bulcsú Hunyadi
Head of Programmes, Head of the Radicalisation and Extremism Programme

His core research interests focus on far-right actors, tactics, narratives and networks, as well as international illiberal-authoritarian networking and influence-building. He has also been involved in research into the illiberal transformation of the Hungarian political system, Russian influence, disinformation and Hungarian domestic politics. He has led or participated in many of Political Capital's research projects and is the author or co-author of numerous studies and articles. He is also a regular feature in the national and international media. He has worked with Political Capital since 2007 and studied history, sociology, and international relations.

Katalin Szitás
Chief of Operations

Katalin is a political scientist, who completed her degree at the Faculty of Law at Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, where she also undertook doctoral studies. Prior to joining Political Capital, she worked at the Office of the Hungarian National Assembly (parliament) and at the Ministry of Justice. She has been with Political Capital since 2006, where she is responsible for directing the daily operation of the institute, liaising with partners, organizing events, handling press relations, and conducting analytical work. In 2020, she published Intellectuals and Politics, a collection of interviews.

Richárd Demény
Analyst

He obtained a BSc degree in Politics and International Relations at the University of Southampton and subsequently pursued an MSc degree in European and International Public Policy at the London School of Economics. He gained professional experience at the European Commission, Policy Solutions, and the British Embassy in Budapest. His research primarily focuses on Hungarian politics and the European Union.

Zsuzsa Kelen
Analyst

Zsuzsa has studied psychopedagogy, hungarian literature and linguistics and ethnic and minority studies at Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest. She gained professional experiences at various NGO-s and small companies in Hungary. At Political Capital, she works primarily in the program focusing on radicalism and extremism.

Róbert László
Election expert

Robert earned his university degrees from the University of Economics and Public Administration of Budapest (2004) and Corvinus University (2009). He is a professor in the electoral programme at the National University of Public Service, Budapest. Robert’s research speciality is the Hungarian electoral system, and he is the leader of Political Capital’s initiatives in this area.

Csaba Molnár
Head of research, quantitative analyst

Csaba Molnár holds a bachelor degree in physics from Berzsenyi Daniel College, Hungary and a masters in mathematics from Eötvös Loránd University, where he also studied programming and computer science. With this background, Csaba is perfectly suited to develop the methodologies for Political Capital’s research projects with his extensive knowledge of data processing software (for instance: R, SPSS, MS Excel). He is also involved in quantitative analysis and the modelling of political and societal processes, creating indices, data visualisation, and social media analysis.

Dorottya Víg
Project manager

Dorottya obtained her bachelor’s degree in International Studies at ELTE, before going on to complete a master’s degree in the same subject on the German-language programme at the Andrássy University Budapest. She began her career at the University of Graz, before continuing as a research fellow at the Department of Political Science at the University of Leipzig, where she worked on a research project examining rule of law narratives in East-Central Europe. At Political Capital, she is currently  project manager for the HDMO (Hungarian Digital Media Observatory).

Hanna Faludi
Communications officer (currently on leave)

Hanna studied Communication and Media Studies at Budapest Metropolitan University. She then received an MA degree at ELTE in International Studies, specialising in development policy. After her studies, she started working as a junior commercial coordinator at Sony Pictures Entertainment Central Europe. Hanna is responsible for communication and event management at the institute.