The humanism subsumed under the name of the Dutch educationalist Erasmus (1466–1536) is quintessentially Western. It appeared in Christian Western Europe, in the wake of the Renaissance rediscovery of the Greco–Roman culture which had lost its influence on the continent since the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century.

Humanism thus fits the definition that Charles de Gaulle gave on 5 March 1959 to one of his confidants, Alain Peyrefitte, of France: ‘We are, above all, a European people of the white race, of Greek and Latin culture and of the Christian religion.’ Beyond France, this definition befits Europe as a whole.

It is a fact that, in the wake of the chaos that swept across Europe after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, Greco–Roman culture was better preserved in (then mostly Christian) Syria, Egypt, Africa and Mauritania.

It is also a fact that the first centuries of Islam were of a refined and glorious civilization, and that the rekindling of the Greco–Roman flame in Europe was largely owed to the Arabic scholars who had translated and preserved their works, then entertained the European scholars of the Middle Ages who were attracted by that beacon of the arts and sciences on the other shore of the Mediterranean.

‘Erasmus+ was…to be a vector of unity and a means of transmitting the fundamental values ​​of our civilization’

But it is a fact as well that 12 centuries have passed since, and that Islamism as it is spreading across Europe is utterly antithetical to the Islam of yore, and to that Christian tradition which begot first greater hope and peace throughout Europe, then begot humanism, and then begot the best aspects of secularism and rationalism, whose seeds were sown by Christ and Rome. In this cultural context, a shocking development has occurred recently with the Erasmus+ programme of the European Union.

As Boulevard Voltaire’s Catherine Giset puts it in a 24 February 2025 article, Erasmus+ was designed to bring European students closer together and strengthen academic cooperation; it was to be a vector of unity and a means of transmitting the fundamental values ​​of our civilization. Yet the current management of the programme betrays these founding principles.

Sanctions on Hungary

As was reported in a 6 March 2023 publication by 2PE – Bretagne, in December 2022 the European Commission suspended Hungary’s participation in two flagship programmes: Erasmus and Horizon Europe.

As was written in a 26 February article for Le Figaro entitled ‘Erasmus: “In the eyes of the European Commission, the company of Orbán is worse than that of Hamas”’, this measure was officially presented as a sanction against the higher education reform launched by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.

As Catherine Giset explains: ‘this higher education reform, inspired by the American model, aimed to modernize Hungarian universities by establishing, via foundations, a board of directors responsible for supervising strategic, financial and academic decisions.’

‘The stated objective’, she writes, ‘was twofold: to improve the international competitiveness of Hungarian institutions and to attract private funding. By integrating representatives of the private sector into university governance, this reform also aims to simplify administrative management and boost investment in higher education. Moreover, the adoption of this reform was not mandatory: the majority of Hungarian universities supported it and freely chose it, while a minority was allowed to keep the old system.’

‘Whether one is in favour or against this reform is up to the Hungarians to judge’

Such university management models are also known in Europe, for example in Germany. Whether one is in favour or against this reform is up to the Hungarians to judge, and certainly not the Brussels bureaucrats.

By suspending the Erasmus and Horizon Europe programmes for Hungarian universities, Catherine Giset deems that the European Commission has taken an unacceptable and deeply unfair decision. The Hungarian government has tried to resolve the situation by proposing a new law, but the European Commission has repeatedly demanded further changes. To this day, funds remain frozen for the majority of Hungarian universities.

It is Catherine Giset’s belief that, in reality, the Commission is ‘instrumentalizing the concept of the rule of law to weaken a leader who stands up to it, thereby sacrificing Hungarian students and exacerbating divisions within the European Union’.

Complacency with Islamists

Meanwhile, as was reported by the Journal du Dimanche’s Pierre Chamatin on 30 September 2024, the European Union was proven to have integrated a pro-Hamas university in its Erasmus+ circuit—almost a full year since 7 October to halt the process (not that the horrors of 7 October were necessary to demonstrate the heinousness of Hamas; but as Sartre put it, once you can no longer call yourself ignorant in good faith, to not act on knowledge is to be a salaud).

In fact, the university in question, the Islamic University of Science and Technology of Gaziantep (Türkiye), had its Erasmus+ partnership renewed for the third consecutive year in the immediate aftermath of the rector of this university paying tribute to Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas leader killed by an Israeli strike on 31 July 2024.

Catherine Giset brings our attention to the fact that this is not an isolated case. In 2021, it was revealed that the Islamic University of Gaza, nicknamed ‘the Hamas campus’, had received €1,800,000 in European funds via Erasmus. Cahterine Giset and Jean-Paul Garraud, who is head of the Rassemblement National delegation in the European Parliament, tabled an amendment asking for explanations and demanding an audit of the funding; however, the Commission refused to address it.

Restoring the Values ​​of Erasmus

In the face of these excesses, Catherine Giset deems it urgent to recall the primary mission of Erasmus: ‘inspired by the humanism of Erasmus of Rotterdam, this programme aimed to transmit the great values ​​of European civilisation: academic excellence, intellectual freedom and commitment to the humanities. It was not simply a question of facilitating student mobility, but of offering them an education rooted in our common heritage.’

Catherine Giset’s diagnostic is that ‘instead of promoting the humanities and the classics, Erasmus is today being diverted to finance institutions that are moving away from the very essence of our civilization. Rather than strengthening European unity, it is being used to promote projects that are contrary to our traditions and fundamental principles. Whereas the Commission is financing, through Erasmus, institutions close to Islamism, it seems unbothered by universities that promote wokeness and tolerate the excesses of a radical left.’

With Viktor Orbán’s state of the nation address to Hungary, whose pugnaciousness was remarked by the Hungarian Conservative’s Joakim Scheffer on 24 February 2025, as well as with the courageous decision to have the Hungarian government stand up to the entire European Union in a recent UN resolution to moralistically condemn Russia over Ukraine, as was elaborated on by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency’s Ben Sales in a 24 February 2025 publication, the Hungarian Prime Minister has crossed the Rubicon.

To side with America under Biden was submissive; to side with America under Trump is unyielding. And though each EU Member State might try to do Hungary like the elected-for-life senators did Consul Caesar (for instance, by launching another article 7 procedure), Hungary advances in the headwind of history, confident that its vindication is just beginning.

Proposals to Save Erasmus

The right is sometimes accused of being only reactive to the left, and never offering concrete and applicable solutions; Catherine Giset proves this wrong through these three proposals to salvage Erasmus:

• an immediate end to sanctions against Hungary, as participation in the Erasmus programme must not be conditioned by political or ideological considerations;
• a complete audit of European funding, as the ties between Erasmus and institutions linked to Islamism must be stopped immediately;
• a return to basics, as Erasmus must go back to its original mission: to foster cooperation between young Europeans, to transmit the values ​​of our civilization and to promote the humanities.

Viktor Orbán has never called himself an enemy either of European cooperation, or of European values. Against the fist of false liberals, whose betrayal of classical liberalism led to the creation of illiberalism in the first place, the Hungarian Prime Minister extends a hand of well-understood interests and respect; just as one need only knock, and the door will be open, so would one have but to shake, and understandings would come.

Or Europe could keep sulking. While navel-gazing, imaginary cosmopolites pretend to open up to the world at large by both diluting themselves in it and diluting it in themselves, Hungary’s measured efforts to connect with all countries are brilliantly illustrated by the successes of the Stipendium Hungaricum, which does not grovel before the other by hypocritically pretending or convincing oneself to admire or adore the other, but gives him them honest deal and a chance to prove themselves.

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