Jobbik says higher education bill serves to divert attention

Budapest, April 2 (MTI) – A lawmaker of the opposition Jobbik party said a proposed amendment to Hungary’s higher education law only serves to divert attention.

Under the amendment to go before parliament on Wednesday, no foreign higher education institution will be allowed to operate and award degrees in Hungary without a relevant inter-state agreement in place.

MP István Szávay, head of Jobbik’s nation-policy cabinet, said the planned legislation could endanger the operation of Hungarian universities in neighbouring Romania.

He noted that the Hungarian universities in Transylvania part-financed by the Hungarian government are not operating under an inter-state agreement either.

Although the mentality of the Central European University “has always stood very far from Jobbik’s” and the party does not want to “defend [Hungarian-born US financier] George Soros”, it disagrees with “the Bolshevik-type exercise of power introduced by Fidesz”, Szávay said.

With this move, the ruling party only tries to divert attention from the dismal situation of education and healthcare and from corruption, he said.

Photo: MTI

Source: MTI