BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Staff members of the historic Hungarian Academy of Sciences said their academic freedom has been threatened by a new deal giving the nationalist government influence over its research institutions.

FILE PHOTO: Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban delivers his annual state of the nation speech in Budapest, Hungary, February 10, 2019. REUTERS/Bernadett Szabo/File Photo

Prime Minister Viktor Orban, a conservative leader who came to power in 2010, has tightened control over Hungarian public life, including the courts, the media, the economy, as well as education and now scientific research.

Hungary’s oldest and largest academic institution, the academy (MTA) is solely funded by the government but self-managing with a network of scientific research bodies employing about 5,000 people.

On Friday, MTA President Laszlo Lovasz and Innovations and Technology Minister Laszlo Palkovicspost.

Concerns over the erosion of academic freedom and other democratic rights in Hungary have triggered several anti-government demonstrations in recent months.

In December, the Central European University (CEU), founded by billionaire George Soros, said it had been forced out of Hungary in “an arbitrary eviction” that violated academic freedom, and it confirmed plans to open a new campus in Austria.

Renewed government support for the CEU to stay in Budapest has been one of the conditions set for Orban’s ruling Fidesz party to stay in the main center-right party in the European Parliament in a growing row.