Who wants CEU back in Budapest?

CEU left the Democracy Institute, a strictly research unit in Budapest, to remain a symbolic thorn in the side of the Orban regime. This begs the question, now what?

One logical answer would be to pack up shop. The majority of the permanent researchers at the Democracy Institute (and, ditto, the other CEU Budapest units, the Invisible University for Ukraine, and the Institute for Advanced Studies) are also faculty at CEU Vienna. Most of the admin staff would hopefully have a place to land as well, especially since a lot of CEU admin is still in Budapest, and this will likely remain the case for a while. Replacing them with staff in Vienna is extremely costly.

CEU Vienna is still in limbo. Multiple campus plans have been canceled with no long-term solution in sight. CEU built a beautiful, award-winning Budapest campus for way too much money, a campus they can no longer use. And to add insult to injury, the move to Vienna was also extremely costly as well. That is how CEU is today. Interim leadership is running the University, apparently indefinitely, with no solution in sight. None of this detracts from the amazing colleagues working at CEU. I would bet on them any day to be the most amazing researchers and educators. The classes they teach and the programs they run are second to none. Realistically speaking, Viktor Orban and his regime were extremely successful in taking a toll on CEU. The mission to train the region’s next generation of social scientists is waning as CEU needs to raise tuition revenue, and as the potential students, many of whom can now jump to Western European Universities or the US directly, eyeball Vienna’s higher cost of living.

Concurrently, many CEU stakeholders would like to see CEU return to Budapest en force and have begun lobbying the board, the Open Society Foundation, and the Soros family to rebuild CEU there. But let’s be clear about this. CEU will never simply return to Budapest. CEU has made commitments in Vienna that it must keep. Putting people through life-upending moves should not be done regularly (or ever). While I know that some of the faculty still commute from Budapest and would love nothing more than to stop doing this, others have made a life in Vienna that they do not want to throw away (again). But there is the possibility of a CEU with dual presence. I am sure students would have fun spending some of their studies in Budapest. (Sure, there are issues with this, like visas, housing, but CEU has overcome more difficult problems in the past.) It would be possible to have a university with its vast multi-national campus spanning across the old Iron Curtain. But such a project would be extremely expensive.

It is the habit of CEU visionaries to bring great ideas to the Open Science Foundation, to go to the Soros family, as they are willing to allocate extra funds to good projects. And while the partial return to Budapest, the re-elevation of the Budapest campus to Vienna’s equal, is potentially an amazing project, I am more worried about the long-term health of this great institution. Maybe OSF and the Soros family should worry about George Soros’s most lasting legacy: CEU, being OK for the long run, before investing in its expansion back into Hungary. Maybe the people lobbying OSF and the Soros family are barking up the wrong tree.

For CEU to become one of the crown jewels of Budapest’s higher education, again, it is Hungary that should want to make this happen. As stated above, many at CEU would be delighted to make this happen. But do the Hungarian people want CEU back? If so, they should show it. Does Budapest want CEU back? Why don’t we ask Karacsony? What can Budapest commit to? Does the newly elected Hungarian government or Peter Magyar want CEU back in Hungary? Does the EU want CEU back in Hungary? They should make this happen!

I understand that Hungary’s 2026 budget is already mostly spent, and it is still only April. I know that the city of Budapest is suffering financial abuse at the hands of the still sitting Orban regime. But they can make medium-term plans. They can make medium-term commitments. And there is plenty of slack in the Balazs Orban projects at NKE to ensure resources can also go elsewhere while supporting our great colleagues doing great research and teaching at NKE. And the same goes for MCC. There is enough money to support Hungarian students, Hungarian researchers, and the entire research and higher education system of Hungary, including CEU.

If the Budapest nostalgic alumni, if Hungary and Hungarians want CEU back, they should organize, lobby their city, lobby their government, help CEU recoup the financial losses suffered at the hands of Orban’s regime (money I personally believe CEU should have sued for in all forums, but they never did out of respect for the Hungarian people) and get the resources needed to thrive again, now in two countries. Let’s see how much we really want CEU back in Hungary. Let’s see what we are willing to do for it.

This is a call for action! Spread the word. Call every journalist you know. Call every politician you know. Call everyone of influence you know. Start a petition. If you ever benefited from a CEU in Hungary, chip in. If you have large resources and large sway, understand that a CEU Budapest should no longer be George Soros’s job to solve. It is your turn to help make it happen. If you do anything I should be attaching to this post, let me know ASAP. I will promote it on all forums. It is the job of Hungarians, it is the job of those who want CEU Budapest back. And if it turns out that Budapest, if Hungary does not want CEU back that much, I will have to maintain my previous position: it is time for CEU to seize all of its activities in Hungary and leave for good.

Please note that I, myself, do not speak for CEU. While I am still affiliated with CEU’s Democracy Institute as a visitor and teach at the Invisible University for Ukraine (for which I receive a symbolic sum despite repeatedly telling them I will do it for free), I do not work for CEU. (I work at the now still ELTE Centre for Social Sciences) I quit my professorship in 2023 when a move to Vienna became inevitable. I do not speak for CEU. I speak here as a Hungarian citizen whose heart is still broken that the institution I love, whose mission I wholeheartedly adopted and fought for, left my country at the hands of an abusive regime. I would like to see CEU back but I sincerely believe it is the job of Hungary, it is the job of Budapest, it is the job of Hungarians and, to a lesser extent, it is the job of the EU and the Budapest nostalgic alumni (and not a 95 year old man who has already given most of his wealth away, or his family’s who have nothing to do with Hungary beyond second generation heritage) to make this happen!