Hungary approved laws Tuesday that shift vast amounts of state assets and several universities to private trusts in a move critics say cements Prime Minister Viktor Orban's power even if he loses an election next year. A law on "public-interest trusts providing public functions" created five quasi-private foundations to take-over a range of cultural institutions, while 11 universities were also moved into foundation ownership. Hundreds of state-owned assets worth around three billion euros ($3.6 billion) in total according to Hungarian media - including castles, tourist facilities, land parcels, and blue-chip share holdings - will be transferred to the new foundations. Opposition parties suspect that the legislation, whose official aim is to "ensure the independence of the foundations regardless of the government in power at the time", is a pre-emptive measure by Orban ahead of his possible ouster next year. Less than twelve months from the next election current polls show a six-party opposition alliance leading Orban's ruling Fidesz party, which has won three consecutive two-thirds parliamentary majorities since coming to power in 2010. A statement by the opposition alliance after Tuesday's vote said Fidesz is "preparing for election defeat" and accused it of "outsourcing" state-owned assets "so that they can then be distributed without public procurement transparency obligations". Government ministers insist that the new foundation model for universities will modernise higher education by facilitating cooperation with the private sector. The "model change" from public to private ownership is "one of the most important nation-building programmes of the coming years," a government official said Tuesday. From the autumn semester around 70 percent of university enrolment will be at foundation institutions, with only four Hungarian universities still in public hands. Orban's critics also say the model change tightens his ideological hold on intellectual institutions, as they will be overseen by board trustees who include members of Orban's ruling Fidesz party that have been appointed for indefinite terms. Last year, students at a leading arts school SZFE, one of the first universities to undergo the model change, blockaded its campus for over two months in protest at the sudden imposition of a new board of trustees. The new board chairman, a conservative theatre director and loyal Orban ally, said a "new type of thinking" was needed at SZFE. pmu/wai