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A few days after a bomber sent a crude explosive device to the home of billionaire George Soros, the flagship university of the progressive philanthropist in Budapest announced that the Hungarian far-right government was forcing the government into a state of affairs. school to move its operations to Austria.
Central European University, a highly respected university founded by Soros in 1991, has been repeatedly criticized by the government of Prime Minister Viktor Orban, as the authorities repressed liberal institutions in the country. Last year, Orban passed a law that puts in place new regulations for foreign universities, threatening the future of CEU in Hungary.
Although the CEU claims to have complied with the new rules, the Orban government has not accredited the university. "We have done everything to satisfy the Hungarian government, because we are deeply attached to Budapest, but the government seems to have made its decision," HuffPost Zsolt Enyedi, professor of political science at CEU, told HuffPost.
CEU President Michael Ignatieff said that unless the government withdraws next month, the university will have to transfer its degree programs and new students to Vienna, where the institution can operate freely.
"We are forced to leave a country where we have lived for 26 years," he said at a press conference on Thursday.
The long struggle against the CEU, which has attracted tens of thousands of people in the street to protest against the government in recent years, is part of a larger campaign led by the Prime Minister to frame Soros as the deceased planner brain was attacking to overthrow the government and bring a massive African migration to Hungary.
Although anti-Soros rhetoric reigns on the far right in many countries, the Hungarian government is the world leader in disregarding Soros and using the billionaire as scapegoat. The Orban government blames Soros for everything from the refugee crisis to criticizing Orban's growing authoritarianism by the European Union. In this year's elections, anti-soros panels were ubiquitous and Orban used anti-Semitic tropes to warn an "international" enemy who "speculated with money". In a video of an important pro-Orban media, a modified clip of "Lord of the Rings" showed Soros' face superimposed on the head of an orc army. Soros was born in Hungary to a Jewish family.
The so-called anti-Soros laws adopted by the government, adopted this year, have also targeted civil society organizations and criminalized aid to migrants and refugees. Members of the Fidesz party in Orban have repeatedly demonstrated to outside humanitarian agencies such as Amnesty International, by putting stickers on the doors of their offices, on which was written "Migration Support Organization".
Government pressure on the UEC drew the attention of diplomats and became a major issue for the US ambassador to Hungary, David Cornstein, who issued a statement on Thursday saying he remained committed to reaching an agreement between the government and the university.
Last week, the Orban government announced it was canceling accreditation and funding for gender studies because "people are born, men or women" and opposes the discussion about gender as a social construct.
"This is a strategic and unnecessary waste for Hungarian higher education and for academic freedom worldwide," said Andrea Peto, head of the CEU's Gender Studies Department.
Hungary's advocacy groups have also opposed the government's actions, calling on European Union courts to act quickly to protect academic freedom.
"It is time for European and American decision-makers to recognize the Hungarian government for what it really is: disrespectful of the rule of law and selfishly desperate to escalate the political struggle [European Parliament] Elections next May, "said Marta Pardavi, co-chair of the Hungarian Committee of Helsinki, a human rights organization funded by Soros-run foundations.
Typically, the Hungarian government blamed Soros for the move of the university to Vienna. The government claimed that the new university laws only affected the CEU's ability to award American degrees and did not threaten its ability to operate in Hungary, which was disputed by the university.
"The move of the CEU to Vienna is another clever move," government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs said on Twitter. "A political ploy at the Soros."
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