The ruling party in Hungary, Fidesz, intends to present 25 legislative amendments in a so-called “sovereignty defense package” against possible foreign influences, especially in the case of parties and the media, EFE and Agerpres report.
Viktor OrbánPhoto: ATTILA KISBENEDEK / AFP / Profimedia
“Hungary’s independence must be defended with all the tools to make foreign attempts to influence (Hungary’s internal affairs) impossible,” said Mate Kocsis, the leader of the Fidesz parliamentary group, on public radio Kossuth on Sunday.
According to Kocsis, Fidesz, led by (ultra-nationalist) Prime Minister Viktor Orban, would present a legislative package that would target politicians, parties, non-governmental organizations and media that receive support from abroad.
Although for now the concrete content of the said draft law is not known, according to the portal 444.huFidesz justified this project by the fact that, in the previous elections, some opposition parties would have received support from abroad.
Mate Kocsis made it clear that the changes considered would oblige all civic movements participating in the elections to submit to the same audit, functioning and financing norms that apply to official political parties.
The US Ambassador to Hungary, David Pressman, reacted by saying that “it is very dangerous to suggest that foreign powers want to interfere in the internal affairs of Hungary”, and that the so-called threats be used to restrict the right to free expression, reports the same portal.
In 2017, the Orban government and its parliamentary majority already passed a law that obliged NGOs receiving more than 23,000 euros from abroad to provide a list of donors and define themselves as “foreign-funded organizations”.
Four years later, after the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) decided that it violates EU legislation, the law was repealed, recalls EFE.
