Former Chancellor Sebastian Kurz (ÖVP) will speak at this year’s festival of the Mathias Corvinus Collegium (MCC) in Hungary. The think tank is considered the party training ground of right-wing Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. Also present at the July performance: a notorious conservative commentator from the US.
The MCC plays an important role for Orbán’s government and his Fidesz party. In 2020 alone, the government donated more than a billion euros to the foundation – more than all other universities in Hungary combined, according to independent media estimates.
“Patriotic Elite” for Hungary
According to observers, the goal of the college is clear: a new ‘patriotic elite’ and the descendants of Orban’s right-wing conservative governing party Fidesz are to be trained here. The connections are obvious. Chairman of the MCC supporting foundation is Balazs Orban, who is not related to the prime minister but is his political director.
The institution is seen as a national-conservative counter-model to the Central European University (CEU), founded by liberal American financier and Orban critic George Soros. This was expelled from Budapest and has its new location in Vienna since 2019.
The MCC regularly hosts political discussion events, from July 27 to 29 the MCC festival, at which the ex-chancellor will appear, as announced on Facebook. He will speak with Michael Knowles on “issues in public life” at the event in Esztergom in Northern Hungary on the Danube.
Greta Thunberg labeled ‘insane’
The conservative American is a well-known commentator and broadcaster who regularly appears in the relevant media. In 2019, Knowles caused a scandal by calling Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg “mentally ill” on Fox News. The broadcaster later apologised, but Knowles refused to retract his words. The 33-year-old also opposes transgender rights: at a Republican conference in March, he declared that “transgenderism must be completely eradicated from public life”.
Not only does the Mathias Corvinus Collegium attract such internationally renowned right-wing commentators, the university with its outspoken proximity to Orban is also expanding abroad. Since May, the MCC has also been the majority shareholder of the Vienna Modul University on Kahlenberg. The Vienna Chamber of Commerce still owns ten percent of the tourist private university.
Source: Krone
I am Ida Scott, a journalist and content author with a passion for uncovering the truth. I have been writing professionally for Today Times Live since 2020 and specialize in political news. My career began when I was just 17; I had already developed a knack for research and an eye for detail which made me stand out from my peers.
