Orbán: government will appoint people with national worldview to lead Hungarian universities
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Prime Minister Viktor Orbán in a radio interview Friday acknowledged that the selection of members for boards of trustees that will oversee the operation of most of Hungary s public universities is based at least in part on ideological criteria. When we set up these foundations and appoint the boards of trustees, we will be appointing people.who have a national worldview, Orbán said. That is why I cannot in good conscience recommend anyone to such a board of trustees who is an internationalist, globalist person, because they would take the universities in that direction.
Following outcry and the campaigns of some NGOs and opposition parties, the government extended Hungary’s moratorium on evictions. It will stay in effect until the 15th day following the expiration of the state of emergency.
Although, the moratorium only expired on April 30, or according to other interpretations originating from the complexity of various laws, on Tuesday, a long process preceded the extension. This is because the government appeared to be reluctant to extend it at first, despite the campaigns of various civil organizations. As a matter of fact, three of them (the City is For All, the Streetlawyer, and From Street To Home Associations) have long been warning decision-makers that without an extension, many people could end up on the streets.
Opposition Calls on Fidesz MP to Step Down for Voting While Allegedly Infected With COVID
Fidesz representative Zsolt Becsó was reported to the authorities by leftist green party Párbeszéd and the centrist Momentum Movement after voting in Parliament despite being infected with Covid. His vote helped Fidesz win the two-thirds majority it needed to pass a bill outsourcing most of Hungary’s universities to foundations.
Zsolt Becsó had no sense of taste or smell on April 27, the day that the government was set to vote on transfering the majority of Hungary’s public universities to foundations, but he went to vote on the bill anyway. After testing positive for Covid, he was sent into a mandated home quarantine.
Momentum supporters gathered on Kossuth Square to set up a “terrace” protesting the government’s “privatization” of universities. Bernadett Szél, Miklós Hajnal, and Anna Orosz spoke to a live stream about why they were there, arguing that while political gatherings are not allowed in Hungary, terraces and soccer matches can reopen.
The intention of Momentum’s gathering was not to appear as a political demonstration, but a makeshift terrace from where they could protest the Hungarian government’s “privatization” of universities. The ruling parties’ majority has transfered various state assets to “public interest asset management foundations,” removing the state’s oversight of hundreds of billions in public funds.
Hungary will not expel Russian diplomats over Czech explosion, alone in the V4
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Hungary will not comply with calls by the Czech government to expel Russian diplomats in response to an explosion at a Czech munitions depot blamed on a Russian military intelligence unit, making it the only country in the Visegrád 4 not to do so.
Slovakia, Poland and Czechia, all V4 members, have expelled diplomats from their countries in response to reports that the 2014 explosion which killed two people in Vrbetice, a small village near the Slovak border, was carried out by agents of Russia s GRU. Czechia last week urged its European Union and NATO allies to, in an act of solidarity, expel any Russian intelligence officers from their countries.