BUDAPEST, Hungary — The Hungarian government should “engage directly” with a university founded by billionaire George Soros which may have to leave Budapest because of recent amendments to the law on higher education, the United States said Tuesday.
State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said the U.S. government urges Hungary to suspend the implementation of the new “discriminatory, onerous requirements” which she said threaten academic freedom and independence.
The Hungarian government did not immediately reply.
“We hope that the government of Hungary is listening,” Central European University spokeswoman Colleen Sharkey said.
Some of the new conditions in the law would force CEU to open a U.S. campus and condition the university’s stay in Budapest to a bilateral agreement between the United States and Hungary.
Nauert said the U.S. “has no authority or intention” to negotiate about CEU or other universities in Hungary, as sought by Hungarian officials.
The statement by Nauert, named to her post a month ago, was significant because Hungarian officials had dismissed earlier State Department declarations on CEU, saying they came from U.S. diplomats in place before the inauguration of President Donald Trump.
