Historically speaking, Hungarian science has punched above its weight – but often, tellingly, from outside the country. The nuclear physicist Edward Teller, a key architect of the hydrogen bomb, ended up in the US as an exile from the quasi-fascist and antisemitic Horthy regime. The legendary mathematician and physicist John von Neumann had already left the country before Horthy came to power, to study physics in Germany and Switzerland before ending up alongside Einstein at Princeton’s Institute for Advanced Study.
Among the other prominent émigré Hungarian scientists and mathematicians of Jewish descent in the early 20th century were Eugene Wigner, Leó Szilárd, Paul Erdős, George de Hevesy and John Polanyi. Szilard once responded to physicist Enrico Fermi’s question “Where are the aliens?” by saying “They are already here among us – they just call themselves Hungarians.” The 1956 uprising and its brutal suppression brought another wave of scientific exiles, including my old colleague and friend at Bristol, theoretical physicist Balázs Győrffy.
It’s quite a legacy to live up to. But as Hungary emerges from the Orbán era, scientists in the country can dare to dream again. Viktor Orbán’s policies were disastrous for Hungarian science. In line with his determination to remake institutions as tools of government beholden to his Fidesz party, he handed over management of many universities to boards stuffed with political appointees. In response, the EU froze billions in funding for research and exchange programmes. Such political corruption is just what the new prime minister, Péter Magyar, has pledged to undo, but it will take time and, with similar problems in government, healthcare and schools, higher education probably won’t be a priority.
Perhaps most notoriously, Orbán’s interference with intellectual freedoms led the Central European University (CEU), founded in 1991 by George Soros, to relocate in 2019 from Budapest to Vienna. There is no indication that it will now return, the Austrian roots having sunk too deeply.
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The most immediate benefit of the Hungarian election for its science base is – well, guess what, New World readers? – the chance to re-establish relations and collaborations with the EU. Hungarian universities and research centres have previously been hampered from joining EU schemes such as Erasmus+ and Horizon Europe, and some European scientists personally refused to collaborate with Hungarians in protest against the regime. “We want to be full members of the European research area again,” geographer Balázs Lengyel of the Corvinus University of Budapest told Nature. “It’s not just the lack of money. It’s a loss of social capital and trust.” Lengyel says that there was perceptible distrust in Hungarian researchers by those outside.
Some researchers say that Hungary’s recovery, in science and beyond, will require more than just reversing the abuses of the Orbán era. “Hungarian academia and higher education [have] a historic opportunity to build a new system more appropriate for the 21st century, rather than restore the old one,” historian Andrea Pető of the CEU told Nature. And as was immediately apparent, the resonance of Magyar’s victory extends well beyond Hungary’s borders. It gives Hungary “a chance to show the world how to rebuild science after political control”, says Barabási. “Hungary’s recovery matters because its predicament is not distinctly Hungarian.”
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“Contemporary democratic backsliding has shown that a government does not need to abolish science to weaken it,” he adds. “It need only reshape governance, reward loyalty and make institutional operation – and survival – depend on political favour.” He does not, in the leading American science journal, need to spell it out any more explicitly.
Barabási indicates what is needed in Hungary. “University boards need to be depoliticised, with merit-based appointments, transparent procedures, fixed terms and strict conflict-of-interest rules. These are the foundations on which everything else rests, because no international partner, no returning researcher, and no young scientist choosing a career will invest in institutions whose governance can be rewritten at political convenience.”
The pace of Trump’s politicisation of science outpaces Orbán’s to a degree that makes it hard to imagine what US research would look like after 16 years
of MAGA. All the more reason to pay attention to what Hungary does next. “If it succeeds, it will have done more than correct its own course,” writes Barabási. “It will offer a roadmap for every society struggling with the politicisation of knowledge itself.”
