Arad Mayor proposes relocation of Central European University from Budapest to his city

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Mayor of Arad, Gheorghe Falcă, said on Thursday during a press conference that, following discussions with city hall officials, it was decided to submit an offer to the Central European University (CEU) for relocation from Budapest to Arad.

According to Falcă, the letter by the municipality of Arad will express solidarity with the university and will also include an offer to relocate it to Arad; the letter will be sent the next days to Michael Ignatieff, the president of the Central European University in Budapest, founded by American billionaire George Soros.

The mayor said that Arad municipality has identified two buildings with a total surface of over 6,000 square meters for the educational process, student accommodation and catering to be made available to the CEU.

“Noting the restrictions occurring in Hungary in regard to the Central European University, and following the recent decisions of the Parliament in Budapest on university accreditation, we have decided to send a letter of solidarity and an offer of replacement in Arad. Our city is part in the same Central European culture, we believe in the same values ​​that have made this university have motivation to educate generations. Many Romanians, Arad inhabitants have studied there, so we agreed to send this request from a city with good access, with highway, with pan-European railway and international airport,” Gheorghe Falcă said.

He said he will tell the CEU President Michael Ignatieff that the offer may be presented in detail in Budapest.

Hungarian 199-seat parliament voted 123 to 38 on Tuesday in favour of the legislation which places tough restrictions on foreign universities. The main target is believed to be the Central European University and its founder, George Soros.

It is the latest battle declared by the right-wing Prime Minister of Hungary, Viktor Orban, against liberalism.

CEU, meanwhile, has vowed to fight the bill.

The English-speaking university, which is still partly-funded by Hungarian-born Mr Soros, is ranked among the top 200 universities in the world in eight disciplines.

A government minister, told MPs on Tuesday it went “against Hungary’s interests to host experiments, financially supported and evading democratic ‘rules of the game’ in the background, which aim at undermining the lawfully elected government or leadership”.

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