On Monday, Central European University announced that new students enrolling starting in September 2019 would begin their studies in Vienna, rather than Budapest, after Hungary’s highest ranked university was forced out of the country by the regime of Viktor Orbán. “CEU has been forced out. This is unprecedented. A U.S. institution has been driven out of a country that is a NATO […]
This week started with embarrassment for Viktor Orbán’s regime and especially for Minister of Human Capacities Zoltán Balog, who experienced a thoroughly public snubbing by Washington DC on the on-going saga of the planned shuttering of Central European University. On Monday, Mr. Balog, whose gigantic and unruly ministry oversees the education portfolio in Hungary, told journalists of the Index news […]
Canada’s New Democratic Party (NDP) expressed its serious concerns about the state of democracy in Hungary in a comment provided to the Hungarian Free Press. The comment was made by Hélène Laverdière, the NDP’s Critic for Foreign Affairs and Member of Parliament for the riding of Laurier – Sainte-Marie. HFP asked Ms. Laverdière to comment on the many rule of […]
Former Liberal Party of Canada leader Michael Ignatieff was not alive on April 4, 1945, when the Russian Red Army liberated Hungary from the remaining elements of a dogged, pro-Nazi resistance. That liberation was the start of a 45 year long period of Russian led, anti-liberal rule in Hungary, which only ended in 1990. On April 4, 2017, as Rector […]
The Hungarian Consulate in New York City does a fabulous job of informing the public about every event, visit or meeting conducted by their diplomats in the Big Apple. The Consulate’s homepage, personal internet pages, tweets and Facebook pages report every little happening. On March 16th, sixty alumni and friends attended the Central European University (CEU) Alumni Reception at the […]
We have all seen this film before. The Orbán government uses its legislative might to launch an explicit attack against an institution, a prominent group, a principle or an individual. It then lines up its media empire to spread misinformation and heated rhetoric against the new public enemy number one, while successfully galvanizing and transforming its most primitive supporters into […]
Michael Ignatieff, Central European University’s rector and a citizen of Canada, wrote a public letter to professors, students and graduates of CEU to inform them that the Orbán government intends to draft legislation that directly threatens the future of this Budapest-based, English-language institution. Mr. Ignatieff emphasized: “The claim that we do not have program accreditation is entirely false. The claim […]
