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A pro-government magazine in Hungary published a list of more than 200 people – including academics, journalists and representatives of nongovernmental organizations -- who it said were likely among what Prime Minister Victor Orbán has described as a group of “mercenaries” allegedly hired by the billionaire philanthropist George Soros to overthrow the government, The Washington Post reported.
Among those listed were faculty at Central European University. The graduate institution in Budapest was founded by Soros in 1991 and is currently locked in a standoff with the increasingly autocratic Hungarian government over its ability to continue its operations in the country. CEU recently signed an agreement to open a satellite campus in Vienna but has maintained it wants to keep its home campus in Budapest.
CEU president and rector Michael Ignatieff called the publication of the list “contemptible” and “a flagrant attempt at intimidation that is dangerous for academic freedom and therefore for all of Hungarian academic life.”
“CEU also finds it unacceptable that those who work for an organization supported by George Soros would be called ‘mercenaries,’” the university said in a written statement sent to Inside Higher Ed. “In CEU’s case, as we have said, the university administration answers to a 21-member Board of Trustees, not to our founder, George Soros. CEU is proud of its association with each of its founders -- among them academics, public servants, and civic-minded leaders, including then-president of Hungary Arpad Goncz; Czech president Vaclav Havel; and Polish historian and finance minister Bronislaw Geremek -- and their shared vision for a graduate university to provide future leaders with an education based on critical thinking, open debate, and academic inquiry.”
