70,000 march in Budapest to protest legislative attack on Central European University

Joe writes, “Hungarians rose up in one of the largest protests against the seven-year rule of right-wing Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Sunday, protesting against new legislation that could force out of the country one of its top international universities.”

The Central European University (CEU), a school founded by U.S. financier George Soros, could be forced to leave Hungary after a bill passed in Parliament this week by Orban’s Fidesz party set stringent, new conditions under which it must operate. The bill has led to criticism from hundreds of leading academics worldwide as well as from the U.S. government and the European Union. The protest drew some of the largest crowds against Orban’s seven-year rule, with organizers estimating attendance around 70,000. The crowd marched across a bridge over the river Danube and filled the square outside Parliament, which was defended by several lines of police, some in riot gear.

Massive protest in Hungary against bill that could oust Soros university [Marton Dunai/Reuters]