Hungary

Last update: March, 2025

In the last few years, most of the major cultural institutions and public universities have been restructured by the government into public interest foundations. This does not change the fact that they are funded by the Hungarian state. It has, however, reduced institutional autonomy by placing boards of trustees over the institutions, whose members cannot be recalled. Because of this reform, the European Union has launched infringement proceedings against Hungary. One criticism was that politicians were appointed to the boards of trustees. After this, the Hungarian government recalled the active politicians. However, the issue remains that the board members cannot be dismissed, and the EU does not see it as ensured that these institutions make transparent decisions regarding EU funds. Therefore, public trust universities were excluded from the Erasmus and Horizon programs, causing enormous damage to Hungarian higher education. The exclusion remains in effect.

Among art universities these structural reforms affected the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design, the Hungarian Dance University, and the University of Theatre and Film Arts (Színház- és Filmművészeti Egyetem, SZFE). Interestingly, out of all Hungarian universities, only two art universities showed resistance. At SZFE, the management, faculty and the students deemed the process a limitation of academic autonomy and carried on months long sit in in the academy campus in 2020; some of them opted for an independent secession academy of theatre and film studies: Free SZFE. In 2024, the leadership of Moholy-Nagy University resigned as a result of student protests.

The large cultural investments initiated by the government have also sparked much debate. The newly built museums in Budapest’s City Park have ultimately been accepted by the public. However, in the Buda Castle, a reconstruction project is underway that aims to repurpose historic buildings—previously functioning as cultural institutions such as theatres, museums, and libraries—for government use. Critics refer to this process as the “deculturalization” of the Castle. If cultural functions are removed from the area, citizens will no longer have access to these buildings, and tourists will only be able to view the castle from the outside.

Another controversial issue is cultural heritage protection. In economic investments, heritage conservation aspects are not considered, as the state tends to favour investors instead. The independent heritage protection office was abolished years ago, and although experts now work within the ministry, they are unable to prevent demolitions and reconstructions because political decision-makers override their professional opinions.

The Ministry of Construction and Transport oversees the National Castle Programme mentioned in Section 3.1. Within this programme, castles that are in poor condition and unsustainable are privatized, with a mandatory renovation requirement. Criticism of the programme mainly focuses on the fact that the tender winners are business circles with close ties to the government. This group includes friends and family members of the Prime Minister (such as his son-in-law), who are influential players in the tourism industry.

There is an ongoing debate between the state and the Budapest municipality over the funding of theatres in the capital. Most recently, the spotlight has turned to the successfully operating Kolibri Children's and Youth Theatre. The Minister of Culture appointed a new director who was not supported by the theatre’s ensemble or the professional committee. In the ensuing debate, the minister stated that the „European orientation” of the Kolibri Theatre must be discontinued.

Citing the 2021 Child Protection Act (the full, cynical name is “Act on tougher action against paedophile offenders and amending certain laws to protect children”), the state restricts artistic freedom of expression (see Section 2.5.5 for details). At the World Press Photo exhibition held in the National Museum, a far-right politician filed a complaint against the museum over a photo depicting men in women's clothing. The museum's director, although a pro-government politician, refused to enforce the law and was consequently dismissed from his position.

The dependence of cultural actors on the state currently causes the most problems in the field of filmmaking. In the one-stop system of the National Film Institute, filmmakers are highly vulnerable because if their projects are rejected, they have very few opportunities to make a film. Media reports frequently highlight cases where successful directors' films were denied state support, while those of inexperienced but politically loyal producers received funding. The most successful films of recent years, measured both in terms of festival awards and box-office revenue, have been made without state support.

A feature of the current cultural policy is the key role of some personalities who fulfil multiple tasks:

• László Baán is director of the now combined Museum of Fine Arts and the National Gallery, he manages the Budapest City Park Project (involving the erection of several new cultural institutions).
• Csaba Káel is CEO of the Müpa art centre, the director of the new Bartók and Liszt Festivals, is government commissioner for the National Film Institute and the Eszterháza Palace and Cultural Centre.

Szilárd Demeter is director of the Petőfi Literary Museum and the subsidiary Petőfi Cultural Agency, the anchor of the gigantic endowment destined to serve the Foundation for Hungarian Culture. Demeter is also the leader of the Hungarian National Museum Public Collection Centre, recently merged from five big museums (see 1.3.3 for details). He is ministerial commissioner for the integrated development of libraries and of the renewal of the rock scene.

Last update: March, 2025

Hungary is party to all relevant international agreements, except the Istanbul Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence which the government refused to ratify.

The Hungarian constitution explicitly protects the freedom of science and art. The principles of rights and equal treatments are fully included in the relevant documents down from the Constitution (the Fundamental Law), and the respective institutions and officials are in place. These guarantee, among others, the right of information and communication with the media in focus as well as the right to association. These two areas are subject to constant political debate. The government keeps referring to the above-mentioned legal guarantees and presents documented arguments about their fulfilment in practice. National and international critics cite numerous instances and indicators on the limitation of the media and on the biased attitude of the government to NGOs. The civic organisations that consistently monitor the decisions of the government are labelled as Soros agencies regardless if they have had relationship to the Hungarian born philanthropist. “To counter attacks on national sovereignty”, the government established the Office for the Defence of Sovereignty in early 2024. The office cannot yet apply legal sanctions, but it writes reports against international human rights, anti-corruption, democracy NGOs. However, in early 2025, the government plans to introduce a law to protect sovereignty against organisations receiving foreign funding (including EU grants), including media critical of the government; these will be banned from accepting foreign funding.

Obstacles to civil society organisations and the independent press therefore remain unchanged, and the new law on the protection of national sovereignty further undermines civil society space. The role of the state in funding civil society remains a matter of concern.

Last update: March, 2025

In the communist times artists were considered a privileged group. A large network of holiday resorts and artist residences served the members of the official professional associations. Their professions were held in official esteem and the system promoted the cults of the most eminent. Many of today’s awards and fellowship grants originate from the communist era. Dissidents and those whom the power kept alien to the communist conception of culture were nevertheless excluded from such favours.

The current NER System of National Cooperation has returned to placing special emphasis on individuals. The number of artists and cultural professionals who are entitled to lifelong annual annuities above the age of 65 is well above a thousand, and those having reached this age threshold and drawing the monthly annuities total a few hundred persons at any time. The various groups and their gratifications are listed at 4.1.3.

Between the above-mentioned provisions for the elderly and the impressive array of public art fellowships the lately established Térey Grants offer existential backing to 45 middle-aged writers

These signals of the recognition of the role of artists in society are in contrast with the modest conditions and indeed precarity of the greater part of employees in cultural institutions and the artists in self-employed status. The advantageous self-employment tax scheme (kata) was abolished in 2022, which also caused significant disadvantages for workers in the cultural sector.

Beyond financial hardships, most of the independent art groups complain about signs of demonstrative neglect on the part of the cultural administration of the state. This is a major difficulty in theatre and film, where many independent companies have disappeared. Well-known theatre and film directors have been forced to leave the country due to lack of jobs.

Last update: March, 2025

Based on a National Info-communication Strategy, conceived in line with EU principles, the government launched the National Digital Development Programme in 2014. Government decisions 1404/2017 and 1175/2018 constituted the Digitising Strategy for Public Collections 2017-2025 (Közgyűjteményi Digitalizálási Stratégia - KDS), earmarking 15,2 billion forints (cca 50 million euros) for the first four years.

The text of the strategy is available at the KDS portal https://kds.gov.hu/. It discusses all aspects of the issue, including preceding and related projects, relevant EU measures, foreign samples, and a detailed design of the procedures to follow. An additional White Book elaborates on the standards and technicalities of digitisation. The portal displays the progression of the programme at detail. In August 2021, the counter marked 5,033,801 documents having made accessible in the programme. Beyond museum, library, and archival items, this also includes 27 virtual exhibitions.

The National Film Archive contains 423 films considered as Hungarian Classics. This archive includes an online pay-per-view film library but also has free opportunities for educational purposes. The nemzetiarchivum.hu (national archive) is an online, pay-per-download photo and press (TV, radio) collection, containing 304 007 photos and 987164 press materials.

The Petőfi Literature Museum runs the Digital Literary Academy, which keeps digitised oeuvres of contemporary writers who make their works available on the Internet by contract. Created in 1998, this unique endeavour has between 30 and 40 members at any time. New members are co-opted by old members once a year to replace deceased ones. The full oeuvre of new members is digitised, put on free display, and their authors receive a monthly allowance four times the value of the official minimum wage. In 2025 the programme hosts the works of 174 past and current members. In addition, the works of earlier writers (as posthumous members) are digitised: their numbers are close to those of past and present members.

The Hungaricana project of the Library of Parliament aims at sharing Hungarian cultural heritage amassed in various collections. Its special features are historical maps, postcards. This is a free service unlike the huge digital collections of Arcanum Ltd. This private enterprise specialises on Hungarian language periodicals and books but also features a variety of maps. Fortepan is a highly popular open access, community photo archive containing over 200,000 downloadable archive photos for free.

Last update: March, 2025

An Act on National and Ethnic Minorities was passed in 1993 (Act LXXVII), declaring minorities to be constituent elements of the state, defining their collective and personal rights. National and ethnic minorities – or, since an amendment in 2011, "nationalities" – are defined as ethnic groups that have been living in Hungary for at least one hundred years and differ from the majority by language and culture. There are 13 recognised nationalities. In Hungary ethnicity is considered a private matter: systematically collecting data according to ethnic background is not allowed under the Personal Data Protection Law. National censuses and elections of minority governments are all based on voluntary self-identification. In the 2022 census, 2.5 percent of the population declared that they belong to the Roma minority and 1.7 percent to the German minority. All the other minorities are under 1 percent in the population.

As was discussed above, nurturing the cultural and language requirements of the rapidly dwindling percentage of ethnic minorities is a priority. Its function is the opposite of inclusion, the aim being to reduce the pace of assimilation. To certain extent this serves to justify the country’s involvement in the protection of the Hungarian minorities over the border. This is also why Hungary was among the first to sign and ratify the framework agreement of the Council of Europe on the protection of national minorities. Hungary also takes part in discussions which raise the issue of minorities within the political principles and priorities of the European Union.

In 2022, 218 thousand foreigners lived in Hungary, about 2% of the population (KSH). Their number has increased by 52% since 2011. Most of the foreigners living in the country, 76%, came from European countries, and 82 thousand were nationals of neighbouring countries (mainly ethnic Hungarians from a neighbouring state (Romania, Ukraine, Serbia, Slovakia), who do not constitute a cultural minority). After the outbreak of the Ukrainian war, a significant number of ethnic Hungarians living in Transcarpathia moved to Hungary.

Asians (Chinese) are the most dynamically growing minority group, with 19.7 thousand double the figure in 2012. 

In a society where the current ethnic homogeneity is politically a stated asset no wonder that cultural inclusion of immigrants is out of the agenda. This even applies to Hungarian-speaking Transcarpathian Roma fleeing the war in Ukraine. Ngo-s active in intercultural activities feel the stigma of Soros agents upon them.

The issues of social deprivation and cultural inclusion overlap regarding the Roma or Romanies, one of the 13 recognised minorities. Although considered as politically incorrect, the old name of Gypsy (cigány) is still widely used, both in their own community and in official documents. The inclusion of the Roma population is a fundamental challenge in Hungary. During the 2022 census, 201 000 Roma were recorded, i.e., about 2.5 percent of the population; However, according to the 2015 estimation of the European Roma Rights Centre approximately 750 000 Roma live in Hungary today. That is over 7.5% of the population, many of the living in poverty and exclusion. On the other hand, the greatest number of Roma with full higher education in the whole of Europe is in Hungary, both in absolute and relative terms. Among the first 24 Hungarian members of the European Parliament, two were Roma: one of whom was the rapporteur for the EU strategy on Roma inclusion. Hungarian Roma artists are especially famed in music, both individually and in ensembles.

National federations of minorities have consultative status and often veto rights in relevant legislative matters. Their elected local government representatives in the villages and towns, and on the national level, have significant rights and growing resources – which, by nature, are primarily spent on culture. There are a total of 2098 local minority governments in Hungary, of which 1121 are Roma and 403 are German. There are 9 national minority representatives (nemzetiségi szószóló) in parliament.

Last update: March, 2025

Tourism and urban development are sectors where the contribution of culture is acknowledged by the government. The main argument in favour of building the Budapest Museum Quarter is to promote cultural tourism. Similarly, Veszprém, the European Capital of Culture 2023, has received significant support for the renovation of its city centre and for brownfield cultural investments for tourism.

Reducing social inequalities can be a major policy goal in which culture can play a role. Unfortunately, it is not among the government's priorities. However, there are many NGOs working to help children in deprived areas and in deep poverty to integrate. A good example is the Igazgyöngy foundation in Eastern Hungary. This foundation has started to help Roma children in small villages to catch up in school through visual art education. The art education was then used to develop complex school and social economic integration programmes. Objects decorated with the children's works are sold in many museum shops, even in Austria.

Last update: March, 2025

The principle of cultural sustainability is subordinated to the political goals of government. Cultural institutions that are politically forced into loyalty, such as public universities or priority cultural strategy institutions, receive increased funding. Institutions that have not undergone government reforms, especially if they are in some way critical of the government, are difficult to sustain, for example because they are maintained by financially depleted municipalities or simply do not receive enough state subsidy. In any case, the condition for cultural sustainability is the surrender of institutional autonomy. This is made explicit by the government when it publicly argues for institutional changes by promising wage increases and adequate funding.

Last update: March, 2025

Cultural politics is in a flux, bringing about unpredicted important developments any moment.