Despite differences, GOP should defend Soros in Hungary

The image of secretive billionaires undermining democracy by funding nefarious causes has been long associated with the political left, blaming the Koch brothers, for example, for the Tea Party movement and proposals to radically deregulate the U.S. economy.

The conservative response to such left-wing assertions? Living in a free society means that private individuals and organizations are free to fund causes with which others disagree.

{mosads}Yet, when it comes to liberal billionaires funding left-wing causes, some on the right change their tune. Hence the claim from conservative circles that by funding liberal causes in Eastern Europe, George Soros, the Hungarian-born American investor-philanthropist, is “fomenting trouble for the governments of some U.S. allies and even interfering in their electoral process.”

Hence the right’s acquiescence to new Hungarian legislation that would close down the Soros-backed Central European University (CEU) in Budapest. CEU is accredited in the U.S. and is governed by a board of trustees comprised mostly of Europeans and Americans, including former New York Republican Governor George Pataki.

We are not in love with a number of Soros’ political causes, either. The fixation of Republicans on the Hill on Soros’ misguided political preoccupations and arguable overreach is misplaced, however, at a time when first-order issues are at stake.

Eastern Europe and the Balkans face a serious dual threat today: Russian interference in the internal affairs of many of these countries — in politics, media and the economy — is on the rise.

This is occurring while political rights and civil liberties are on the decline, undermined by leaders across the region of unmistakable authoritarian bent. According to the Heritage Foundation’s Mike Gonzales, we should not be choosing between Soros and Vladimir Putin, as “both options are equally bad.”

We disagree. 

Those who wish to defend free society — and conservative values! — have to choose their battles wisely. They must also be willing to distinguish between existential threats to democracy and issues that, while important, belong nevertheless to second-order concerns.

The first-order, existential challenge to democracy in Eastern Europe is coming from leaders such as Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán — once, incidentally, a recipient of a Soros scholarship — who mistake their substantial popular mandate for a free pass to crack down on dissenting voices. Under Orbán’s leadership, Hungary’s democratic bona fides have declined in recent years, according to Freedom House.

Two recent examples highlight the first-order problem in Hungary. First, legislation, currently under discussion in the Hungarian parliament, would label non-governmental organizations receiving foreign funding above $25,000 annually as “foreign agents.” That’s draconian. A second bill, recently signed into law, makes it impossible for CEU to issue both Hungarian and U.S. academic degrees.

A government spokesman — himself, by the way, a CEU graduate — has called the practice an “unfair privilege,” notwithstanding the fact that such practice is commonplace among Western-style academic programs across Eastern Europe and elsewhere.

The government justifies the new legislation, dubbed “Lex CEU,” on the grounds of the need for additional “guarantees to protect Hungary’s higher education market against universities not properly qualified.” Some CEU’s courses were apparently not properly registered with Hungarian authorities. 

But that’s all misdirection, and it eerily echoes the phony reasoning given by Russian authorities when they recently revoked the license of the European University in St. Petersburg (the university apparently lacked a fitness center and failed to produce required pamphlets on the dangers of alcoholism). 

By a wide margin, CEU is the most prestigious academic institution in the region, not to mention in Hungary. It is the only Hungarian university in the world’s top 350 list, as compiled by The Times Higher Education. It has a world-class academic press and a political science department currently ranked as number 42 in the world, ahead of Brown, Duke and Northwestern.

The attack on CEU is part of a broader effort to “squeeze out” Soros “and his forces,” as Orbán himself acknowledges. It is also an attack on an American academic institution — CEU has a charter from the Board of Regents of the University of the State of New York. Yes, even if conservatives bristle over course work in gender studies and environmentalism, CEU has remained a life line for pro-American, pro-West students throughout the entire post-Soviet space.

Let’s not win battles and lose the war. First-order issues are rule of law, pluralism and academic freedom. Congress and the administration need to push back against the Orbán government’s moves to close CEU. Failure to do so means that the slippery slope of soft authoritarianism in former communist Europe gets steeper and more dangerous.

Jeffrey Gedmin is a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, and former president of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Dalibor Rohac is a research fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

The views expressed by contributors are their own and not the views of The Hill