Soros’s University Turns Into Democracy Battleground in Budapest
- CEU’s fight shows retreat of liberal democracy, Ignatieff says
- Hungarian premier steps up campaign against liberal democracy
Michael Ignatieff.
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The fight over the survival of a university in Budapest founded by billionaire financier George Soros is part of a bigger battle over the future of liberal democracy in eastern Europe, according to Michael Ignatieff, the head of Central European University.
Thousands of Hungarians took to the streets on Sunday to protest for academic freedom in response to government legislation unveiled last week which Ignatieff, a Canadian, said was targeted at shutting down CEU. Soros established CEU in his birth city after the fall of the Iron Curtain to train a new generation of leaders to build democracy in eastern Europe after decades of communism.