The Hungarian capital’s city government opposes the construction of a branch of Shanghai Fudan University in the capital Budapest.
Budapest Mayor Gergely Karácsony and Krisztina Baranyi, governor of Budapest’s 9th district, expressed their strong opposition to the government’s plan to build a branch of Shanghai Fudan University in the city at a press conference on Monday (May 17), according to local media reports.
Before that, Karasonyi held a meeting with Hungarian Minister of Innovation and Technology László Palkovics.
Karasonyi said the government had previously been reluctant to share plans for the construction of the Fudan University branch with Budapest city leaders, and that he had only learned during Monday’s meeting that the Hungarian government planned to spend 1.4 billion euros in public funds for the Fudan University branch.
Speaking at a press conference, Karasiani said Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán had previously vowed not to make any investments in the project that Budapest city leaders oppose. He said, “This means that the Fudan project has been disregarded because the municipal leaders do not support it.”
Karasonyi said it was “hard to believe” that the Hungarian government would openly welcome any university in the world after it “drove Central European University out of the country.
The Hungarian government had planned to build a branch of CEU in the student quarter of Budapest’s 9th district. At a press conference, District 9 Mayor Baranyi reiterated that the City Council “will use all legal and political means at its disposal to ensure that the student quarter is built and that Fudan will not be built.”
Baranyi said the council was concerned that the Hungarian government would sign an international agreement to use a special legal order during the epidemic to suppress a referendum by the local government on the issue. The city council therefore decided to hold an “online consultation” with Budapest residents to seek their views on the construction of the Fudan University campus.
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