[en] This chapter explores the current entanglements of the political sphere with education and science in Europe by offering insights into recent policies and initiatives relating to academic freedom and open science at the European and national levels. The co-optation of educational and scientific domains by political interests has led to an increased willingness at the national and federal EU level to intervene in academic freedom and the governance arrangements that ensure the openness of higher education on the one hand, while simultaneously seeking to protect these values, on the other. These developments not only risk eroding the legitimacy of the post-World War II liberal order, norms, and models but they also bear witness to colliding freedoms and protection purposes within the liberal order. Critical knowledge production, its circulation, consumption, and curation, are facing these challenges, as a heightened politicization of higher education fuels a tightening of control over the academy by illiberal governments.