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bne May 2017 Central Europe I 51
Asked by bne IntelliNews whether he had been prepared for a governmental assault on CEU when he took up the job last summer, Ignatieff said: “I wasn’t prepped, but I knew I was coming to Hungary, so the political context would be interest- ing. Let’s just say I was well briefed.”
“We had been trying to talk to the ministry for a month, but then today they allow us a meeting,” he explained.
In the event, however, on the evening
of March 29 Ignatieff was not granted
a meeting with the minister in charge
of education, Zoltan Balog, but only his underling Laszlo Palkovics, a state secre- tary with negligible political power. After the meeting Palkovics baldly told report- ers that the ministry sees no reason to withdraw its bill on foreign universities.
By March 31 a timeline of events
had emerged. CEU sources told local media that in December Ignatieff had received a “friendly warning” from Justice Minister Laszlo Trocsanyi that the cabinet was “preparing to kill” CEU with an amendment motion. Ignatieff was then told the details
of the bill around a month before
it was filed, the sources added.
However, even MPs of the ruling Fidesz party, speaking on condition of anonym- ity, have expressed anger about the attack on CEU, with one saying academic inter- ference was “not normal in the Middle Ages, never mind the 21st century”.
The move could represent Fidesz’s first major PR campaign action ahead of
the general election that will be held next April, another unnamed MP told local media. Soros and the EU will
play the role of foreign attackers of Hungary, from which Fidesz will have to defend the country, he explained. The MP said he had disagreed with, but accepted, the government’s harassment of “Soros NGOs”, but found this attack on one of Hungary’s most respected academic institutions unacceptable. MPs said they had not been told about the attack on CEU, although the squeezing of the “Soros army” NGOs had been on the agenda of a party caucus meeting in February.
Party insiders speculated that the move was revenge for the partially Soros- funded Helsinki Committee’s recent human rights court victories against the state, or that it intends to cut a
deal with Soros that if such NGOs stop their operations, then CEU – which Soros considers the jewel in his philanthropic crown – can stay.
As the dust cleared on what business weekly HVG called “a bomb going off at international level”, suspicion crept in that Orban may have underestimated how unpopular the attack on CEU would prove to be. Ranked in the world’s top 200 universities in eight disciplines and in the top 50 in political science and international studies, CEU has consid- erable international sway. Many of its over 14,000 graduates now hold gov- ernment positions around the globe.
Support from the US Democratic Party could have been expected, and on March 30 Senator Ben Cardin, a member of
the Senate foreign relations committee, issued a statement in defence of CEU.
“I share concern that legislation being considered in Hungary will threaten the operations and functions of CEU and, it seems, be a step down an iso- lationist path,” his statement said.
However, if Orban, who was the first European premier to publicly back the candidacy of Donald Trump, had expected support from the new US administration, it – like that
ever elusive White House invita- tion – has not been forthcoming.
On March 31, the US Department of State issued a statement over its concerns that the proposed legislation would negatively affect or even lead to the closure of CEU. “We urge the govern-
ment of Hungary to avoid taking any legislative action that would compromise CEU’s operations or independence,”
the statement read, arguing that CEU “has strengthened Hungary’s influence and leadership in the region through its academic excellence and many contribu- tions to independent, critical thinking”.
Furthermore, the most influential ethnic Hungarian in the White House is currently Sebastian Gorka, the dep- uty presidential assistant, who in 2007 declared Orban a busted flush as he attempted to set up a nationalist party to rival Fidesz in Hungary. Nor will the CEU attack please Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary, who has long- standing business ties with Soros.
On March 31, Orban appeared firm on the issue. “Cheating is cheating. We are not going to hold talks with CEU, as they are not yet the US government, however much they wish they were.
I will only discuss the licence with the federal government,” he said.
Edit Zgut, the foreign policy analyst
at Budapest-based think-tank Politi-
cal Capital, called the attack a “mile- stone” in the history of Orban’s “hybrid regime”. Fidesz is shifting from the “grey zone to authoritarianism” she wrote.
Even Gabor Bencsik, a leading pro-Orban journalist, warned in an editorial in the conservative weekly Mandiner that,
“if the Hungarian government crosses the democratic Rubicon, the conse- quences will be unpredictable”.
Ignatieff said CEU will explore any legal avenue available to fight for its survival. “We plan to show them over the next week or so that messing with us comes with costs,” he said.
Find more Central Europe content at www.bne.eu/central-europe Selected headlines from past month:
· Slovak parliament passes bill aimed at annulling Meciar amnesties. · Polish opposition smells blood as PiS support weakens.
· Central Europe starts to tot up Brexit fallout.
www.bne.eu