Hungary’s Viktor Orban will support referendum on plan to host Chinese university campus
- About 10,000 people marched through Budapest on Saturday to protest the proposed sprawling Fudan University campus in the Hungarian capital, planned for 2024
- Critics say the courting of Fudan University, which deleted references to ‘freedom of thought’ from its charter in 2019, fuels concerns about academic freedom in Hungary
Hungary’s right-wing Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Thursday said he would support holding a referendum to settle a row over his government’s plans to host a campus for a top Chinese university.
About 10,000 people marched through Budapest on Saturday to protest the proposed sprawling Fudan University campus in the Hungarian capital, which is planned for completion by 2024 but now looks likely to be postponed.
Budapest’s liberal mayor Gergely Karacsony and other city officials fiercely oppose the project which has fed unease about the European Union member’s diplomatic tilt from west to east, and have previously proposed a referendum on its fate.
“There will be a referendum,” Orban told a press conference after his project director Laszlo Palkovics said in April there was “no plan B” to proceeding with the campus.
Orban also accused the opposition of having politicised a “professional higher education” issue.
“I don’t see any other solution (than holding a referendum) … I have my own strong arguments. I will gladly share them with people when the time comes, then there will be decisions, and we will accept the decision,” he said.
Cabinet minister Gergely Gulyas told the press conference that final plans for the campus must be submitted to parliament by the end of 2022, after which a referendum can be held.
