While most EU member states are primarily concerned with tackling the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent economic crisis, the Hungarian and Polish governments’ are focusing on opposition to the EU’s plan to “promote gender equality and women’s empowerment”.
Dóra Dúró, deputy leader of the Our Home Movement (“Mi Hazánk Mozgalom” far-right, national-radical mini-party), tore up and then shredded the book “Meseország mindenkié” (Storyland is for everyone) at a press conference in September.
In recent months, the University of Theater and Film Arts in Budapest (SZFE) became the new target of the Hungarian government’s culture war. The experiences of the institution’s response may change the nature of future demonstrations.
The necessity of a reformed Hungarian higher education system became clear in the 2000s: after the regime change in 1990, the number of higher education students was increasing heavily, which decreased the quality of higher education and the value of university diplomas.
The pandemic can rule the agenda, but it cannot rule the ideology. This is the main lesson of the past few days in Hungary. The government has introduced restrictions and a crisis management plan, while PM Viktor Orbán has began writing the new chapter of the Hungarian ideological-cultural war in the meantime.
In the last few months, life at the universities has changed dramatically and involuntarily. Lectures and tutorials have shifted online, Zoom became the new lecture hall and seminar room, and students had a taste of what it is like to have their exams or finals take place online.
The Council of the European Union as voice of the member governments and as main legislative body of the EU alongside with the Parliament, had a key role in these debates which worth to recall.
During the last few months, we have seen countless articles written on certain aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Eeven people who do not normally follow world news are knowledgeable in the virus policy of certain countries.
The regime change in the former Eastern Bloc may rarely be connected to one specific date. It is rather considered a process which took place between 1989 and 1990. Of course,there were several important events. But none of them could be identified solely as “the” one that signifies the change of a regime.
Whilst universities have always been in an advantageous situation because of digital tools and lessons available online, amd thanks to the fact that university students are used to digitalization, primary and secondary schools in Hungary are still in their infancy regarding digital education.
