German university revoked premier's doctorate. In Romania and Hungary, disputes remain over who should judge

The premier of the German federal state of Thuringia lost his doctorate and is going to court because of it — the Technical University in Chemnitz rejected his appeal this week. On the same day, Romanian media wrote about the head of the country's intelligence service, who is suing the education ministry over his dissertation, and Hungarian media about a university that, according to one of its lecturers, has been handing out titles to government politicians. Three cases from one day are connected by one question: who has the final say in verifying what politicians claim about themselves — whether it is an academic title or assets. In Slovakia, a university confirmed plagiarism in one case but was unable to revoke the title.

Germany: title revoked, premier remains in office

The university and critics accused him of poor scholarship in his 2008 dissertation on the American presidential campaign Bush versus Kerry. The first plagiarism allegations came shortly before the 2024 state elections, when his CDU was still in opposition and the party then spoke of a dirty campaign. In January 2026, after a lengthy review, the university decided to revoke his title, and this week the philosophy faculty council rejected his appeal as well. Voigt wants to go to court. His lawyer claims the decision raises serious legal questions and that it is an isolated case where a university revokes a title after an external neutral reviewer refused to find grounds for revocation. ZDF heute ↗

What matters is how it played out politically. Voigt remained in office — the opposition AfD with Björn Höcke launched a constructive vote of no confidence against him in February 2026, with Höcke himself running as a candidate and failing. In May, the faction had its own report drawn up to document additional plagiarized passages. Voigt also faced criticism for unmarked use of artificial intelligence in speeches and comments, following which the newspaper FAZ removed one of his posts. Deutschlandfunk ↗

Romania: intelligence chief resolving title dispute in court

SIE Director Gabriel Vlase filed a lawsuit against the education and research ministry in February 2025. According to the G4Media portal, he is asking the court to review the administrative procedure of the doctoral title he received in 2010 from the Mihai Viteazul Academy of Intelligence Services — an institution subordinate to another secret service, the domestic SRI. That parts of the work are suspected of plagiarism was described in 2018 and 2024 by the Newsweek and Pressone newsrooms. The academy's ethics commission rejected the complaint, reasoning that according to a constitutional court decision, it cannot substantively assess work that has already entered public circulation. G4Media ↗

More interesting than the lawsuit is what the defendant did. According to G4Media, the ministry did not file a remedy against the suspension of proceedings, although it had the right to do so. The ministry's press office told the portal it had exercised all due diligence to ensure defense in court. Proceedings are suspended today because the court in November 2025 granted Vlase's request to turn to the constitutional court — he challenges the constitutionality of those provisions of the higher education law that regulate how ethics commissions can assess plagiarism and how institutions can respond to it. G4Media writes that if the appellate court granted his lawsuit, Vlase could claim there is no longer any legal problem surrounding his work. G4Media ↗

Hungary: doctoral school that the rector is to close

Lecturer Barcsi Tamás, head of department at the law faculty of the University of Pécs, published an open letter to the school's leadership on Monday. In it, he claims that the university's philosophy doctoral school functions as a PhD factory and that its leadership, in the spirit of nepotism, used its influence to build careers and connections. According to him, politicians from Fidesz and KDNP also improperly obtained titles, who clearly came to doctoral studies not out of interest in philosophy. He identified the school's move in 2019 from the philosophy faculty to the Szekszárd faculty, which previously offered preschool pedagogy and teaching, as a mistake. These are his claims — the university is reviewing them and the dean of the faculty rejects them. Telex ↗

The university responded on Tuesday that review of the school's accreditation and some doctoral procedures had already been underway and continue. A scientific ethics review ordered in June was completed at the end of July, and the school is now considering employment and academic measures. According to the statement, the rector is to submit the question of closing the doctoral school to the senate in October, with student rights preserved. Dean Gábor Szécsi, on behalf of the school's leadership, said they read Barcsi's letter with surprise and that it is based on false and unlawful claims. HVG ↗

Romania again: cars not listed in declaration

Romanian HotNews encountered the same question, only regarding assets. A parliamentarian from the AUR party came to parliament in recent months in three different cars — an Aston Martin, a Maybach, and a Bentley — and priced them himself at 240,000 to 280,000 euros. The vehicles belong to companies in which he is a shareholder, and therefore do not appear in his asset declaration. Parliamentarian Florin-Eugen Cîrligea, an entrepreneur from Brăila in his first term, explained it to the editorial office in a sentence that made it into the headline: why shouldn't he buy them or keep them at a company, what is the problem. Another parliamentarian from the same party fled when asked about his Mercedes. HotNews ↗

The same institution that also appears in Vlase's case decided what from asset declarations the public would see at all. The constitutional court on May 29, 2025, decided that public declarations should not include the assets and income of spouses and children, and declared the obligation to publish them on the ANI website unconstitutional. Officials continue to file them in full form, but only authorized persons have access and the public sees only a summary with value bands. And just this week the constitutional court heard complaints against the new integrity law by which parliament extended the obligation to file declarations to spouses and persons in a similar relationship. PNL, USR, and President Nicușor Dan challenged it — among other things because the law does not establish any objective criterion for when a relationship is legally relevant and leaves it to the person concerned to self-categorize. The Romanian case is therefore not a simple story about eliminating oversight. Parliament is trying to expand the circle of required persons — including partners whom the constitutional court excluded from the public part of declarations a year ago — and the dispute over it returns before the same court. G4Media ↗

How it looks in Slovakia

Slovakia has its own version of the Romanian case, and it is strikingly similar. The newspaper SME found in September 2025 that approximately two-thirds of the diploma thesis of SIS Director Pavol Gašpar titled Criminal Law Aspects of Prosecution of Corruption from 2011 are word-for-word plagiarized from four sources, two of which are not cited in the thesis at all. Gašpar replied that his diploma and bachelor's theses are in order and passed review and defense before a commission. Opposition PS called for his dismissal, he remained in office. SME ↗

The Slovak difference is in what an institution can do when it confirms plagiarism. In the case of parliamentarian Marián Kéry, the Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra confirmed plagiarism according to a ta3 television overview — and was unable to revoke the title. That is precisely the point where the German and Central European story diverges: in Chemnitz, the university revoked the title and the dispute moved to court, where judges will decide on it. Elsewhere, the dispute moves to court earlier — and the question decided is whether the work can even be assessed. ta3 ↗

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