Universities Must Be Spaces for Debate, Not Violence, Says Political Director

At the Mathias Corvinus Collegium (MCC) central opening ceremony, Balázs Orbán, chairman of the board of trustees and political director to the prime minister, emphasized that universities should be places for meaningful debate, not exclusion and violence.

Referring to the tragic death of American political activist Charlie Kirk, Balázs Orbán said:

He was a man of meaningful debate. He saw with keen insight that it is becoming increasingly difficult to have real debate at Western universities, with many institutions effectively becoming prisoners of liberal, progressive dogma.”

He added that progressive dogmatism has now reached Hungary: “Anyone who does not profess the current liberal canon is easily threatened with excommunication, pillorying, and even academic witch hunts.” Balázs Orbán believes this is a dangerous phenomenon because the strength of a nation lies precisely in its ability to find answers to the great challenges of history through open and honest dialogue.

Success will depend on the ideas and solutions that we Hungarians come up with. Good solutions require courage, originality, and innovation,”

he emphasized. He added that intellectual freedom must be maintained in the academic world so that Hungary can defend itself against “the uniformity coming from the liberal side.”

Balázs Orbán. Photo: MTI/Bodnár Boglárka

Balázs Orbán emphasized that the MCC was created to provide a forum for scholarly debates that serve the entire nation. “We believe in meaningful dialogue, the clash of views, and diversity,” he said.

Zoltán Szalai, director general of the MCC, added that the institution is now the largest talent development center in all of historical Hungary, with more than 8,000 students in 31 cities in the Carpathian Basin. In his view, debate is a natural part of community life, but “we support each other best when we speak to each other with respect and empathy, when we exchange arguments rather than labels, when we convey real thoughts rather than emotions.”

This year, the MCC is offering hundreds of programs, conferences, and lectures, not only in Budapest, but also in Brussels, Bratislava, Berlin, and Berehove (Beregszász).

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