Hungarian President Janos Ader signed into law a bill that detractors accuse of targeting Central European University (CEU) in Budapest, established by Leftist billionaire George Soros after the fall of the Iron Curtain in the 1990s. The bill forces any education institution to close if it does not have a campus in the country of origin. This would include CEU.
Central European University said it “strongly disagreed” with President Janos Ader’s decision and vowed to challenge what it called a “premeditated political attack on a free institution, reported AP.
“As I have said before, we are willing to sit down with the Hungarian government to find a solution to enable CEU to stay in Budapest and operate as we have done for 25 years,” CEU Rector Michael Ignatieff said. “However, academic freedom is not negotiable. It is a principle that must form the basis of any future agreement.”
“The situation is that in Hungary we are not closing a single university,” Prime Minister Orban said Monday in parliament. “In Hungary, we usually establish and open universities. You can trust in this in the future, too.” He accused CEO of cheating because students could earn American and Hungarian degrees.
The Hungarian government has been accused of targeting non-governmental organizations, or NGOs, that originate in foreign countries. This would include groups tied to George Soros, who has spent hundreds of millions of dollars in Eastern Europe pushing a progressive agenda.
“Ader today proved that he is not suited to be the president of the republic because he is incapable of recognizing the nation’s interests and cannot express the unity of the nation,” the Socialist Party said.
