New Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar vows to win back EU funding by liberating universities

Newly elected Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar has said securing frozen EU funds is his government’s top priority, citing a four-point plan to do so, including « liberating Hungarian universities and academic freedom ». The central European country saw a significant decline in its index of academic freedom and institutional autonomy, according to the 2026 Index of Academic Freedom.

In the national elections, on 12/04/2026, Hungarians gave Magyar, Viktor Orbán’s pro-European challenger, a landslide victory : the 45-year-old President of the Tisza Party (liberal, conservative and populist centre-right party) won 138 seats in the 199-seat parliament, giving him the two-thirds majority required to make major changes in legislation.

Orbán had been in power in Hungary since 2010 and conceded defeat immediately after the results came in. A close ally of both US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, he led Hungary towards a path of euroscepticism and far-right authoritarian reforms for 16 years.

In December 2022, the EU withheld Erasmus + and Horizon Europe funds…