Foundation headed by minister behind Chinese elite university in Budapest receives EUR millions

Hungary’s Minister of Culture János Csák heads the board of trustees of a foundation created to establish the campus of the Chinese Fudan University in Budapest. No track record of any work done by the foundation can be found, nevertheless it received a tremendous amount of aid from the state budget.

The Fudan Hungary Egyetemért Alapítvány (Foundation for the Fudan Hungary University) received four properties, HUF 600 million (EUR 1.5 mn) maintenance money and HUF 6 billion (EUR 15.66 mn) operation sum from the parliament’s Fidesz majority. But Márton Tompos, an MP of Momentum and Ágnes Vadai, an MP of DK, could not find any trace of their activities. They don’t even own the above-mentioned four properties. Moreover, they were supposed to submit their activity report by last December. However the Fidesz majority in the parliament postponed the deadline until 30 June 2024. That is three weeks after the EP and local government elections, 444.hu wrote.

The government said the Fudan University project is not on their schedule, but they transferred almost EUR 16 million to the foundation, which doesn’t even have an office. When RTL Klub sent an inquiry about the foundation to János Csák, Hungary’s minister for culture and the head of the foundation’s board of trustees, their request was left ignored and dismissed.

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