Right -wing extremist governments are planning billions in the event of research in Europe
Right -wing extremist governments are planning billions in the event of research in Europe
An increase in right parties that move into governments across Europe raises concerns for science. According to political experts, these parties, whose focus is mostly on immigration, show little interest in research. In the Netherlands, where the party for freedom (PVV) under the direction of the anti-Islamic arsonist Geert Wilders formed a coalition government in July, the researchers are preparing for cuts of 1 billion euros ($ 1.1 billion) in the budget for decades.
“We are talking about historical cuts," says Caspar van den Berg, President of the umbrella organization of the universities of the Netherlands. "It is really noticeable how strong research, education and innovation are hit by all sectors."
also Italy, Hungary, Slovakia and Croatia have chosen governments that contain right parties. In June Populist parties in the elections to the European Parliament achieved growth . And in September, the Freedom Party of Austria led the surveys in a state election.
Although there are exceptions, according to Léonie de Jonge from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, these parties typically have no interest in research and innovation, which the scientists susceptible to cuts.
drastic cuts
The Netherlands, which are above average in global science, belong to the nations that experience drastic changes in their research system. The government's budget budget, which was published last month, provided for almost a billion euros annually to cuts for universities and research and stroked the support for research grants for young scientists, open science and international students.
The cuts correspond to the deletion of about a large university in a country that only has 14 universities, says van den Berg. Several universities have already frozen the hiring of new employees in the summer. The University of Amsterdam has described the cuts as the largest since the 1980s.
One of the greatest victims of the budget are the scholarships for start-ups and incentives that were introduced in 2022 to grant new and existing scientists one-time grants of 300,000 euros, for example, to discontinue doctoral students and laboratory assistants.
The aim of these grants was to create space for independent, curious research and at the same time reduce working pressure, ”says Eddie Brummelman, chairman of the Young Academy, a science policy group in Amsterdam. Dutch academics have repeatedly strike in recent years to draw attention to the high workload.Without these funds, young academics will be even more dependent on competitive grants from industry and the already overloaded Dutch Research Council (NWO), he adds.
The NWO also faces cuts: the changes remove 30 million euros annually from its budget for scientific infrastructure. His funds for open science are halved.
In a separate reduction package, the new government has deleted the last tranches of the Netherlands National Growth Fund, which supported green hydrogen projects and medical research, which means saving 6.8 billion euros.
focus on immigration
International students are also targeted by the government. The coalition would like to reduce the number of registration and shorten almost 300 million euros from the budgets of university training to ensure this.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science said that the government decided to prioritize the areas of security, health care and the securing “that people have more money in their pockets” (the government lowers income tax). “To make this possible, cuts are unfortunately necessary in many areas, including education and science.”
The Dutch Parliament is considering a "balanced internationalization" law that aims to counteract the growth of English -language teaching and research that has contributed to attracting international talent.
To the alarm of universities, if the law is passed, all Bachelor courses would have to obtain approval in order to be taught in English or another foreign language.
How many courses could be forced to switch to Dutch is so far unclear, says van den Berg. But this step could trigger a emigration of foreign academics who do not want to or cannot teach in this language. "You fear the drainage of the most talented people," he adds.
The politics agree with the goals of parties, the central topic of which is immigration, says de Jonge. "Ultimately, this is the only thing that interests her," she says. “Your voters are not interested in innovation.”
Although indifference to research is a concern, such parties are often hostile to universities that are regarded as the bulwark of the left “indoctrination”, it adds, which makes university formation a tempting goal for cuts.
neglect of science
in Italy, where the right-wing party Brothers under Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni 2022 won , the university financing was effectively shortened this year by around 500 million euros, which led to a budget of around 9 billion euros, a spokesman for the Italian university ceremony. A government spokesman replied that a large part of this decline was due to the fact that the financing was preferred in 2023.
The neglect of science is not always limited to extreme rights. The new center-right government of France has disappointed scientists by deleting long-term increases in budgets while trying to reduce public debt.
But the rise of the extreme right parties that are obsessed with immigration has particularly bad signs for research, says Robert-Jan Smits, President of the board of the Technical University Eindhoven in the Netherlands. "These are one-top parties," he says. "They don't really seem to be interested in science, and they have no politics."