Balázs Hankó

As minister, Balázs Hankó was a key architect of the university governance reforms that prompted the European Commission to suspend Erasmus+ and Horizon funding for Hungarian institutions, directly harming tens of thousands of Hungarian students and researchers. Rather than seeking legal accommodation with Brussels, Hankó publicly framed the EU's concerns as politically motivated attacks, amplifying anti-EU sentiment domestically while the funding freeze deepened. He simultaneously professed to defend students' interests in press statements while blocking compromise arrangements that would have restored funding by relaxing government control over university boards. The pattern reflects a broader policy of replacing autonomous academic institutions with politically loyal boards, subordinating Hungarian higher education to the governing party's ideological agenda.