Student demonstrations in Budapest

Secondary school students gathered in front of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences on Wednesday to protest against government plans to change Hungary's higher education. It was yet another protest against the government’s plan to cut funding.

Addressing a crowd of over 1,000 young people, speakers condemned the reform plans which they called unpredictable, as well as the planned introduction of student contracts. Rather than trying to "tie students to the soil" through education contracts, the government should promote job creation, they said, and demanded equal opportunities for poor but talented youth.

In response to recent student protests, the government of Viktor Orbán seems to have retracted and now says the same number of students can receive state-funded higher education from next September as in the current school year. However, student organizations say that the government changed its stance on the issue so many times in the past few weeks that they will only stop demonstrating if they see the latest promise in writing.