Hungary’s anti-Soros education law sparks schism in European Parliament

The debate over Hungary’s crackdown on the Central European University (CEU), founded by billionaire American-Hungarian financier George Soros, has spilled into a civil war in European Parliament.

Responding to criticism of a law that targets the university passed by the Hungarian government Tuesday, which opponents have described as an attack on academic independence, the Hungarian delegation of the European People’s Party (EPP) group in European Parliament compared the actions of the CEU to George Orwell’s dystopian Animal Farm.

Critics of the law have been “gravely mislead (sic) by the propaganda and private agenda of the American billionaire Soros” and are fighting with a “virtual reality,” the Hungarians wrote in an email sent to their EPP colleagues Wednesday and obtained by POLITICO. “As in the world of George Orwell’s Animal Farm, there are the equals and there are some more equals (sic) than others.”

The email prompted an angry reaction, with a Luxembourgish MEP calling for the Hungarian delegation to leave the EPP and for Hungary to leave the EU entirely.

Hungary’s new rules will ban the Budapest-based CEU from granting both U.S. and Hungarian degrees. If it does not abide by the law as of January 1, 2018, it will be barred from enrolling new students.

While Budapest argues its motivation is to remove the CEU’s unfair advantage over local institutions, which can only grant Hungarian degrees, the move has sparked criticism from both Europe and the U.S. and led to protests in Budapest.

The EPP’s leader in Parliament, Manfred Weber, on Wednesday demanded the European Commission assess the law. “EU needs an independent serious evaluation rather than party political debates,” Weber tweeted. “Freedom of thinking, research and speech are essential for our European identity. EPP group will defend this at any cost.”

Tibor Navracsics, Hungary’s European commissioner and a member of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz party, earlier this week also criticized the law, defending the CEU as “one of the most important higher education institutions not only in Hungary, but also in the European higher education system.” Carlos Moedas, the EU’s research commissioner, issued a statement Wednesday saying he was “deeply concerned” by the law, which “may set an unwelcome precedent for the autonomy of academic institutions in Hungary.” And Parliament’s left flank has repeatedly called on the EPP to expel Fidesz MEPs.

The Hungarian delegation took umbrage with the EU’s response.

“We have expected … we would surely have the support of both our colleagues here and the European Commission, too. What we see is the opposite,” they wrote.

They singled out as an example European Commission First Vice President Frans Timmermans, who they said had circulated a text within the Commission last week calling on his colleagues to “use informal contacts to flag the concerns” to the Hungarian government, and “in particular via the political group in the European Parliament to which the HU [Hungarian] government belongs.”

.@EPPGroup demands @EU_Commission to assess HU Education law. EU needs an independent serious evaluation rather than party political debates

— Manfred Weber (@ManfredWeber) April 5, 2017

Responding to the Hungarians’ email, Frank Engel, an EPP MEP from Luxembourg, called on the Hungarians to quit the group and the EU altogether.

“Forget the crap. We know what is happening, and why,” Engel replied in an email obtained by POLITICO. “Why don’t you leave both the EPP and the EU on your own terms? … You’re practically and factually out anyway. So go. Please go.”