JD Vance Praises Hungary’s Exile of Top University as U.S. Model

Vice President JD Vance visited Hungary this week to rally support for Prime Minister Viktor Orbán ahead of a crucial Sunday election. His visit focused on education and what he called the need to curb ideological influence on campuses.

Vance’s endorsement of Orbán’s education tactics

Vance has publicly praised Orbán’s hard-line measures against left-leaning influence in higher education. In 2024, while serving as a Republican senator from Ohio, he said Orbán’s methods offered a model for conservatives confronting campus bias.

At a Budapest rally, he repeated his critique of ideological indoctrination in schools. Some media ran headlines reading “JD Vance Praises Hungary’s Exile of Top University as U.S. Model”.

What happened to the Central European University

The Central European University moved its academic activities to Vienna in 2019. The campus is about 130 miles west across the Austrian border.

CEU’s then-rector Michael Ignatieff called the relocation a serious setback for academic freedom in Hungary. The university says legislation forced it to meet near-impossible requirements before it left.

Orbán, Soros and the political campaign

Orbán has long attacked CEU and its founder, George Soros. He accused the university of issuing both Hungarian and American qualifications and of using foreign funding to outcompete local institutions.

Orbán received a Soros Foundation scholarship in 1989 to study at Oxford. Over time, he framed Soros as a meddling “globalist” and accused him of leading a “shadow army” of NGOs, using language that observers call antisemitic. Orbán denies those charges and points to his funding of a research institute and ties with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

International fallout and wider trends

In 2018, Soros’ Open Society Foundations moved their international operations from Budapest to Berlin. The group cited an increasingly repressive political and legal environment.

The European Parliament describes Hungary as a “hybrid regime of electoral autocracy.” It says the government has eroded the independence of courts, the media and other institutions.

Allies, influence and the U.S. debate

Orbán is celebrated by parts of the Republican and European hard-right as a trailblazer. Since 2022, a satellite Conservative Political Action Conference has convened in Hungary each year.

Orbán has said he helped shape elements of Donald Trump’s policy agenda. Former President Barack Obama warned last June that some U.S. trends resembled tactics used by autocratic governments like Orbán’s.

Election stakes and opposition promises

Peter Magyar leads the Tisza party and promises to restore the independence of education and other institutions if he wins. Rights activists welcome the renewed political energy but say his proposals lack detail.

One activist, Judit Pardavi, said Magyar’s rise broke public apathy, yet significant policy specifics remain missing. The comment came amid cautious optimism among supporters.

Reporting on the ground

On the morning after Vance’s speech, Filmogaz.com visited the Central European University campus. The visit followed intense international scrutiny of Hungary’s education reforms and their political uses.