Orban’s think-tank disintegrates without state support, says CEU rector

Conservative think-tank Mathias Corvinus Collegium (MCC) will disband if incoming Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar makes good on his threats, interim rector Carsten Q. Schneider of Central European University (CEU) said. Euractiv.

Schneider talks to Euractiv from his office in Vienna. CEU was founded and funded in Budapest by Orbán’s long-time opponent George Soros – a Budapest-born Hungarian-American businessman and philanthropist.

In 2017, she moved most of her teaching activities to Vienna after the laws implemented by the Orbán government, which the CEU insisted, were adapted to make it impossible for her to stay. Still, after the election victory of the center-right Hungarian, the university is planning to stay in the Austrian capital.

Now another institution may be under pressure thanks to the change of government in Budapest.

On Monday – the day after his election victory – HUNGARIAN said his government would cut the state’s ties to the MCC and CPAC – a highly politicized annual conservative political conference held in Hungary.

“I believe the state should never have funded them in the first place, it was a crime,” Magyar said, adding that the matter will be investigated by future authorities.

This, Schneider predicts, will be detrimental.

“If these financial ties are severed, I believe the system will deflate, much like a hot air balloon – unless other actors – such as MAGA in the United States – step in to absorb the costs and continue funding this international network of think tanks, NGOs and quasi-academic events.”

Some have argued that MCC’s rise is mirroring CEU’s model of success — “providing access to talented individuals from outside the major urban centers and providing them with a high-quality education,” Schneider said.

“I cannot fully appreciate how successfully they have achieved the latter, but they have certainly provided very generous financial support to students with strong academic ambitions.”

The institution should not be dismissed entirely, Schneider argued. However, MCC should not be seen as a higher education project, “but rather as a political project,” he said. “In academic terms, it’s not a competitor.”

But Magyar has yet to close the organization. That would be a restriction on academic freedom, Schneider said.

“It would be excessive to prevent people from expressing their views freely. However, it is problematic if quasi-public funding is used to promote political views dressed up as academic research and to fill key positions mostly with politically connected individuals,” he said. OrbanBalázs Orbán’s political director – who is not related to the Hungarian leader – heads the MCC’s Board of Directors.

(bw, adm)