Page 11 - ARUBA TODAY

A11
WORLD NEWS Monday 22 May 2017
Hungary: Protesters rally in

defense of university, NGOs

PABLO GORONDI statement. over a plan that calls for
Associated Press Orban considers Soros an the country to take in near-
BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) ideological foe whose ly 1,300 asylum-seekers.
— Thousands of protesters “open society” ideal con- The government also is in
marched Sunday in down- trasts with Orban’s plans to the midst of a “Let’s Stop
town Budapest, calling on turn Hungary into an “illib- Brussels” campaign which
Hungary’s government eral state,” or a narrower argues the EU is centraliz- Supporters of Hungary’s political opposition display a banner
to repeal legal amend- democracy. ing power to the detriment during an anti-government protest, at Budapest University of
ments which could force Hungary is suing the EU of individual countries.q Technology and Economics in Budapest, Hungary, Sunday, May
a university founded by an 21, 2017.
American philanthropist to Associated Press
leave the country.
Participants at the rally also
said they want Prime Min-
ister Viktor Orban’s gov-
ernment to abandon a bill
that is viewed as an effort
to intimidate civic groups
that receive foreign fund-
ing.
“We have to consistently
stand up for our values,”
activist Katalin Lukacsi
told the crowd. “We have
a future. It is ours, and we
won’t give it up.”
Lukacsi said she recently
quit the small Christian
Democrat party, which is
part of a governing coali-
tion led by Orban’s Fidesz
party. She said the govern-
ment’s actions were “nei-
ther Christian nor demo-
cratic.”
The European Union has
initiated legal proceed-
ings against Hungary be-
cause of the university is-
sue, while Orban says the
government merely wants
to eliminate “advantages”
Central European Univer-
sity has over other Hungar-
ian universities.
CEU, founded in 1991 and
also accredited in the Unit-
ed States, offers Hungarian
and U.S. diplomas, which
Orban has called “cheat-
ing.”
Fidesz said the protest was
an attempt by the “net-
work” of Hungarian-Amer-
ican billionaire George
Soros to pressure the gov-
ernment into changing its
anti-migration policy.
Soros is the founder of CEU
and a supporter of non-
governmental groups in
Hungary.
“We see that pressure is
growing on our nation, but
the government party and
the government do not
wish to change their migra-
tion policy,” Fidesz said in a