Optimism rises for Hungarian research after seismic election result

By Anthony King2026-04-14T14:55:00

Peter Magyar standing on a stage waving a Hungarian flag while his supporters embrace each other behind him. On the other side of the River Danube you can see the Hungarian parliamentary building lit up at night.

Source: © Janos Kummer/Getty Images

Victorious opposition leader Péter Magyar has promised to reverse restrictions on academic freedom put in place by Viktor Orbán’s government

Hungarian academics are cautiously optimistic that Sunday’s landslide electoral defeat for prime minister Viktor Orbán could bring better times for the country’s researchers. Under 16 years of rule by Orbán’s Fidesz party, academic freedom in Hungary has suffered, while in recent years most researchers have been locked out of the EU’s Horizon Europe research programme and Erasmus+ student exchanges.