Hungarian parliament vote threatens closure of Central European University

Hungary’s parliament has voted by a tally of 123 MPs to 38 in favour of legislation that could see the closure or relocation of Budapest’s George Soros-funded Central European University (CEU).

The vote on the controversial bill was originally planned for the 5 April, but was expedited to today, bypassing a full parliamentary debate. Thousands of protesters had previously taken to the streets of Hungary’s capital to oppose the move on the part of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s governing Fidesz party.

The new legislation, commonly referred to as “Lex CEU”, establishes new requirements for foreign universities, including that they must have a campus in their home country. CEU is registered in the state of New York, USA, but has no campus there. With the passage of the law, from 1 January 2018, CEU will no longer be permitted to enrol new students in any programs, unless an agreement is reached between the United States government, the State of New York and the Orbán government no later than September and unless CEU opens a new campus in the U.S. In the words of the Hungarian Free Press, CEU must effectively establish a campus in the United States within six months if it wishes to continue operations in Hungary.

The BBC has previously reported that the attack on CEU is “the latest battle in a war against liberalism” waged by Mr Orbán, a longstanding critic of Mr Soros, a Hungarian-born philanthropist who is well-known for using his wealth to fund liberal NGOs.

Hungary’s Minister of Human Capacities, Zoltán Balog, explained to parliament that while the “existence of a strong, autonomous and internationally-recognized university is in Hungary’s interests [...] it is not in our interests to have players in the background who are conspiring against the democratically elected government.” Mr Balog added that Mr Soros was engaged in a “worldwide smear campaign” against Hungary.

Hungarian President János Áder has five days to sign the new piece of legislation, or to send it back to parliament for review or else request judicial review from the Constitutional Court.

Source: Hungarian Free Press, BBC News