The Central European University says it has been subject to « an arbitrary eviction » from Budapest and it will relocate to Vienna, Austria.
It comes after the university has been subjected to verbal and thinly-veiled legislative attacks by Hungary’s Prime Minister, Viktor Orbán.
The populist and anti-immigration leader has been openly critical of both Soros and CEU’s academic agenda, which appears antithetical to his government’s nationalist worldview.
CEU said that forcing the university out of Hungary violates academic freedom.
« This is unprecedented, » CEU’s president and rector, Michael Ignatieff said in the statement.
« A US institution has been driven out of a country that is a NATO ally. A European institution has been ousted from a member state of the EU. »
The statement said that over the past 20 months, the university had complied with Hungarian legislation and launched educational activities in the US that were certified by American authorities.
However, the Hungarian government has refused to sign an already agreed-upon document negotiated with the State of New York that would allow CEU to stay.
« The government has never even tried to pretend that there were academic grounds for their actions, » the statement said, adding it was a « dark day for Europe and a dark day for Hungary.
