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Contents

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
INTRODUCTION
  Hungary in the 20th Century
  Characteristics of the Orbán Regime
CULTURAL POLICY
SYMBOLIC POLITICS
  Symbolic Politics and Propaganda
  Public Space and Symbolic Politics
CULTURE AND THE HUNGARIAN CHURCHES
EDUCATION
  Public Education
  Higher Education
  Central European University
RESEARCH INSTITUTIONS
  The Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA)
  Historiography and the Politics of Remembrance
ARTS
  Hungarian Academy of Arts
  National Cultural Fund
  Theatre
  Music
  Literature
  Fine Arts
  Film Art and Film Industry
CULTURAL HERITAGE
  Museums and Public Collections
  Protection of Historic Monuments
MEDIA POLICY
CONCLUSION
AFTERWORD
CONTRIBUTORS
GLOSSARY

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Afterword

The core of our report presenting the dismantling of culture, education, science and the media in Hungary was completed by autumn 2019, and the editing process ended on 31 October. However, significant events occurred in the last two months of 2019, as well: in November and December, the government continued to pursue its policy of further extending state control. The methods are the same: at first, rumours about radically centralising, discriminative measures are leaked, then, depending on the strength of the reactions, the measures are relaxed somewhat, but they still result in a worse situation than the previous conditions.

The decree on the implementation of the law on public education adopted in the summer was published in the Official Gazette on 21 November 2019. The decree abolished the flexible system of starting compulsory education which took into account the school maturity of individual children, and made it compulsory to enrol all children aged six from 2020 onwards. Whereas before, nursery school teachers and parents could decide whether the child was ready to go to school, the new law centralised the assessment of school maturity. Psychologists, parents and professional organisations signed a petition protesting against these provisions. The Commissioner for Fundamental Rights launched an investigation, and requested that EMMI postpone the introduction of the new procedural arrangement for determining the compulsory school age in order to preserve legal certainty and to protect children's rights. The regulation did not change in essence, and the Parliament prolonged the deadline for the submission of applications for an exemption from compulsory enrolment by only 2 weeks.

The new law on vocational education, which came into force on 28 November, excluded 32,000 teachers from the system of public education by depriving them of their public servant status. The government tries to compensate vocational instructors for the loss of the security ensured earlier by their public servant status with a salary raise. Those affected by the law were not asked for their opinion beforehand, and the opportunity for a "consultation" was only offered after the bill had been submitted to the Parliament. Late November and early December, trade unions, students and parents organised several protests "against low teachers' salaries, the workload of both teachers and students, compulsory enrolment from the age of six, and the change in the status of vocational instructors."

At the municipal elections held on 13 October 2019, the opposition scored victories all over the country, and Budapest is now led by an opposition mayor. Following this serious defeat, the Orbán government drew the conclusion that it must come down even harder on the independent intellectual circles largely concentrated in Budapest. The government used a sexual harassment case in one of the best art theatres in Budapest as an excuse to deal yet another blow to artistic autonomy.

Early December, the draft of an "omnibus bill" amending legislation on cultural institutions was leaked, which was met with consternation especially by theatre professionals and audiences. The bill "would have practically abolished the National Cultural Fund, would have made ministerial consent a prerequisite for appointing the directors of theatres maintained by local governments, and would have abolished the operating support of independent theatres." Due to heated protests, the most controversial elements were deleted from the text of the bill, but the law passed on 11 December in an expedited procedure still contains a high number of measures that threaten the cultural sector.

The aim of the law is to "strengthen the national culture". As interpreted by the law, national culture "guarantees the preservation of national identity, which contributes to the survival, wellbeing and growth of the nation with the help of th traditions, cultural symbols and collective memory." This phrasing combines an outdated, 19th century view of culture with the limitations of a modern instrumental policy. The law, "in order to strengthen the national culture, defines cultural strategic institutions", i.e. privileged cultural institutions which receive special treatment from the government and conclude with it individual funding agreements for the period of five years. The leaders of these institutions (all of whom are loyal to the government) and the President of MMA will form the so-called National Cultural Council, which will have an - as yet vaguely defined - role in elaborating the government's cultural policy. With the addition of this new institution to EMMI, NKA and MMA, the political management of the cultural sphere will become even less transparent and predictable than before, not to mention serious conflicts of interests.

It is a severe threat to theatres maintained by local governments that the state will only provide them with operational support if local governments expressly request joint management from the state, to which the government responds favourably. In such cases, individual agreements concluded by the state and the local government will set out the rules of joint operation, the distribution of funding and the manner of appointing the management.

The law also contains provisions regarding new tax benefits (involving the corporate tax) on investments, renovation and maintenance costs related to properties under monument protection. Private individuals, including homeowners in protected buildings that significantly contribute to the urban landscape, are excluded from among the beneficiaries. On the other hand, properties owned by companies receiving tax benefits include, for example, castles owned, renovated and run by family members of the Prime Minister or oligarchs who have made a fortune through public procurements, and who have already benefited from significant tax breaks.

Another important news in early December was that the government wanted to extend state control over publishing, as well. The National Széchényi Library, supervised in the past few months by ministerial commissioner Szilárd Demeter, who considers himself a "committed follower of Orbán", issued a guide on submitting copies of publications as legal deposit; this reveals that publishers will be expected to submit data the disclosure of which will breach business confidentiality or violate the data protection laws.

In 2019, several developments occurred in the process of rewriting the National Curriculum (NAT), which has been going on for years. Earlier, in 2018, a panel of experts published a draft of the new National Curriculum, which was disputed by many, but was considered more up-to-date than the 2012 curriculum. However, the government presumably did not find the planned curriculum sufficiently Christian, patriotic or nationalistic, therefore the leader of EMMI appointed Mihály Takaró, a literary historian from the far right, to rewrite the National Curriculum. As a result, six experts working on the curriculum for Hungarian language and literature protested by leaving the group responsible for preparatory work.

On 19 December, the Minister heading the Prime Minister's Office announced that a new National Curriculum will not be issued. After the announcement was met with criticism, EMMI contradicted the Minister. According to their statement, the new version of NAT will become effective from 2020, and it will contain essential conceptual changes which will also allow "the preparation of framework curricula more modern and up-to-date than all preceding ones".

In mid-December, the government broke its own rules when distributing the billions intended as bonuses for performing arts organisations. The call for applications was initially published in order to compensate for the abolition of the corporate tax support, thus only those organisations were supposed to apply which had received corporate tax support before. However, the winning applications were submitted by a number of organisations and private individuals who did not meet this or the rest of the requirements, and had never been involved with the performing arts. Thus, due to the nontransparent and wholly arbitrary distribution of the resources, the situation of actual performing artists has become even more uncertain and unpredictable.

All of the above shows that the Hungarian government continues to abolish cultural autonomies and cultural diversity, to appropriate financial resources and to exclude independent intellectuals. Hungary, more precisely the Hungarian Prime Minister and his government, not only turned their backs on Europe, but they are increasingly distancing themselves from European values.

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