Opposition party calls for withdrawal of law on Fudan University campus

Párbeszéd, jointly with other opposition parties, will propose the withdrawal of a law on setting up a campus for China’s Fudan University in Budapest and on raising the term of jobseekers’ allowance to nine months, deputy group leader Tímea Szabó said on Thursday.

Szabó told an online press conference that the state could save the costs of a referendum on these matters if the ruling parties support the opposition proposal.

She said enough signatures had been collected for a referendum to be held on these matters. As a result, the justice committee must prepare a resolution on them on Thursday, which will then have to be included in parliament’s agenda and the president will be tasked with setting a date for the referendum, she added.

• read also: Chinese community calls for anti-China street names to be changed in Budapest

Hungary does not need an elite university to be built from a Chinese loan at a cost of 540 billion forints (EUR 1.4bn), which will be mostly attended by foreign students,

Szabó said. Fudan University would also pose a threat to national security, she insisted.

Group leader Bence Tordai said it was up to Fidesz to decide whether nearly 14 billion forints of taxpayers’ money would be “wasted” on a referendum. Instead, they could support the opposition’s proposal and “take the referendum off the agenda”, he added.

• read also: Danish sculptor’s work exhibited in Budapest in protest of Chinese project

Source: MTI