Normally, the mayor of the Hungarian capital should be happy that Budapest is expanding with another university, and that it will not cost him (that is, the capital) a single forint.

Instead, he writes in his Facebook post:

"Affordable housing for thousands of Hungarian students in Budapest or support for Chinese political and secret service influence at the expense of Hungarian taxpayers?"

It's not just any university, though. Shanghai Fudan, founded in 1905, is currently the 34th best higher education institution in the world. As Levente Horváth, chief advisor to the MNB president, said last fall, it will have approximately 5-6 thousand students and 500 instructors. According to the plans, from 2024, renowned scientists and professors from various elite universities of the world will be attracted here, who will also "curse" the other Hungarian universities, thus helping Hungarian institutions to perform as well as possible on the international stage.

Not to mention that the large number of Chinese students will bring the news of Budapest back home at lightning speed and - if all goes well - in the next decade the question will be more about where to accommodate the large number of Chinese tourists who come as relatives and friends of the students here , and then they will take home the news of Hungary..

But these aspects do not interest Karácsony at all. Facebook today , he spoke out against Fundan and wrote: "for principled and very practical reasons, we strongly oppose the construction of a Chinese university surrounded by a wall with hundreds of billions of HUF in loans."

We have no idea where he gets the term "surrounded by a wall". Hungarian students will also have free access to the university, on the other hand, there are no blueprints for it yet, we only know that this year it will receive a maximum of HUF 821,492 million in state aid from the state, which amount is already included in the budget.

According to ITM documents, the Hungarian state would provide a little more than HUF 100 billion directly, while China would lend the remaining HUF 450 billion on favorable terms. This would mean a term of 10-15 years and a 1.9 percent euro interest rate. For now, this is a preliminary, not yet final, offer. It is interesting how Karácsony is bothered by this loan, compared to when at the end of last year he was already prepared to take a loan from the European Development Bank (EBRD) for 50 new trolleybuses and 50 new trams.

, the investment already signed by the government and the capital, the Student City of Budapest, which provides dormitory accommodation and the necessary infrastructure for 8-12,000 university students, will be cancelled Where do you get this from?

This is exactly what the opposition newspaper (444.hu) wrote today: "Fudan's buildings will also take away space from the Budapest Student City project, which promises modern dormitories and community spaces for thousands of Hungarian students."

The artificial juxtaposition of Chinese and Hungarian students has already been the subject of several opposition parties and websites. Jobbikos MP Brenner Koloman said at a press conference in March: "Fidesz's anti-knowledge and anti-intellectual policy has reached a new level by releasing a specially supported Chinese university for domestic higher education." He also objected to a university directly managed by the Chinese Communist Party starting to operate in Hungary."

Not to mention the fact that the old grievance is coming up again one step at a time: the government supports the Chinese university, and it has even distracted CEU from Hungary. Which, of course, is a lie, because everyone already knows that the university stayed in Budapest, only the courses that give American degrees were taken to Vienna. Now, however, the opposition is once again in a position to heat up the cabbage. But that cabbage has long since spoiled and stinks.

Photo: Prime Minister's Press Office