LEILA FADEL, HOST:
We've been in Hungary all this week, reporting on why many American conservatives are enamored with this small Central European country's leader. They point to Viktor Orban's unapologetic approach to dominating state institutions and using state funds to implement his vision. We've been especially curious given how many Hungarians say they're watching their democratic institutions crumble under Orban and his party. It's gotten to a point that many young people here say they're looking for a way out until something changes.
RITA NADAS: So welcome.
FADEL: So...
NADAS: This is us, Engame Academy.
FADEL: This is Engame. Can you tell us...
Rita Nadas is the head of education at this after-school program, Engame Academy, here in Budapest. It prepares students, ages 13 to 19, to study abroad for university. She says their research shows the motivations for leaving have shifted. It used to be more about the quality of education and opportunities abroad, but now the No. 1 reason is to get away from the political situation at home.
NADAS: Of course. And feel free to have a look around. This is our main room, I would say.
FADEL: OK.
NADAS: So this...
FADEL: There's a bookshelf filled with English-language standardized practice tests. Students who aren't in class are curled up on orange beanbags studying.
Should we sit down and have a chat?
NADAS: Let's sit down. So...
FADEL: Nadas ticks through some facts. They have about 300 students, many on scholarship. Tuition's about $4,000. And then she gets right into why so many students want to leave Hungary.
NADAS: We have been living in what you are living now since Trump. Everything that is happening now in the U.S., we have been living it for the past 15 years. So we are talking about the Orban government, which is methodically trying to stifle criticism. We experience it day by day. This means a very heavy centralization of education, the scrapping of the Ministry of Education. I think this sounds very familiar.
FADEL: How did the dismantling of the Ministry of Education impact the public school system? I mean, did it make it much different than it was before?
NADAS: It's probably not the dismantling of the Ministry of Education, per se. It's the centralization. So many powers were removed from the schools. Principals now don't have the power to hire or fire anyone. They don't have the power to order new equipment. Universities is another thing. Universities cannot anymore make decisions on how they spend their money on their own. So they have this upper body that decides it for them.
FADEL: Would you still describe Hungary as a democracy?
NADAS: Well, define democracy. We can vote, and there are no black cars pulling out outside at night like we used to have in the '50s, so perspectives. This country has seen awful things in the past thousand years, really, that compared to that, this is a democracy. But what we would call a liberal democracy is very far from it.
FADEL: It's interesting because, you know, people keep talking about the way that dissent is being stifled here.
NADAS: Yep.
FADEL: And yet people still speak.
NADAS: Yes.
FADEL: Like, you speak. How does it present itself when you talk about stifling? How does it work?
NADAS: It's having your favorite newspaper shut down. It's seeing people being afraid to post online if they are working in the public sphere. It's my son asking me if it was OK for him to wear a girly shirt or something in pink and then go outside. What do I say?
FADEL: Nearby, one of her students, Zsofia Mester (ph) is studying for finals. She's already been conditionally accepted to university.
ZSOFIA MESTER: I'm going to the Netherlands, specifically to The Hague, so I'm very excited.
FADEL: Do you think when you complete your degree, you'll come back to Hungary?
MESTER: I really do want to come back to help my country because, well, yeah, it needs a lot of help and development, but it really depends on the government.
FADEL: What would need to change? Is there anything specific?
MESTER: If the government party changes, there is a higher chance for me to come back.
FADEL: I ask her why.
MESTER: I think it's mainly what they represent in a way that the laws and the bills they introduce in the parliament. It's how they don't want a diverse country, internationals coming here, how they treat Hungarians, how they treat people who do not agree with them. I don't want to be a part of it anymore.
FADEL: And she says that's a really hard thing to say because she loves Hungary, her family, her friends and her culture, but she doesn't like what it's becoming under this leadership. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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