The protests against Viktor Orbán, have reached the Academy of Sciences. The time-honored Institution, from the 42 Nobel prize winners, has its headquarters in the centre of Budapest, in a Baroque building on the Danube. The Academy is firmly rooted in the political and cultural center of the capital. On the opposite side of the Danube, the Buda castle is perched. Now, Academy members, staff, students, and other academics in their ivory tower is threatened.
In the past week about 1500 people in several rows formed a chain around the building. In the spring midday sun they protested against the project of the Minister for Innovation and technology, the financing of the Academy in principle, on the principle of Competition. Inside the Academy, the Bureau came together at the same time to a crisis meeting.
defend the freedom of Research – and jobs
The protesters crowded in front of the Academy buildings stood, were non-fiction books in the height – similar to the glowing mobile phones, in a Demonstration against the Internet tax in 2014 as a Symbol of the opponents of Viktor Orbán’s right-wing populist politics. Now is the time to defend the freedom of Research and also jobs in the science, which are threatened by the planned Academy of law.
Since months the dispute between the Hungarian government and the Academy. In the middle of the summer break of last year, the Academy received a proposal of innovation Minister László Palkovics and an hour of time for your reply. The Academy and its 15 research institutes of nuclear physics about the Budapest Observatory to be engaged before the Linguistic Institute of the most prestigious researchers in the country, a total of 5000 employees, should not be allowed to manage their funds as in the past Autonomous. From 2019, the Budget from the Ministry of Innovation should be determined, said of the bill. The new rules should initially apply for one year. It remained unclear initially how exactly the Ministry was trying to influence.
at the end of January of this year, then Palkovics announced, the institutes of the Academy should apply in the future on a budget pot for research projects. There they would compete with University research institutions to the funds, which were previously only available to the Academy. Even the basic funding of Academy institutes to be distributed in accordance with the criteria of the Ministry – according to the Russian model. The Academy of Sciences was reorganized in 2013 and the funds since then, on the Basis of a competition distributed.
basic research and the Humanities
Academy President László Lovász Threatened called the proposal “unacceptable.” In any case, the Academy would enter into competition with other research institutes, if their own resources would be reduced. The Bureau will accept the “Palkovics-Plan” only if the Ministry of Innovation, guarantees that all of the institutions in their basic funding. The outcome of the negotiations with the Ministry is expected by the end of the month.
Academy members and staff warn that the planned competitive process is particularly basic research and the Humanities might go out empty. Due to the uncertain core funding a number of projects were at risk, including research on the life world of the lake Balaton, the Kodály-Bartók music archive and the neurosciences. Background of the Worries among the industry-friendly orientation of the former Ministry of science. Minister Palkovics, a studied automotive engineer, continued to drive its programmatic renaming of the Ministry for Innovation and technology.
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censorship in Hungary, Hungarian Academy of cancelling lectures for political reasons
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National and international institutions have joined the protests. Among them, the European Academy Federal ALLEA, which calls on the Hungarian government to respect the autonomy of academic organisations and institutions. The financing plans of the Ministry would clear.
