Hungary wants to approve 25 amendments to “protect sovereignty” from possible foreign influence

The Hungarian government party Fidesz plans to introduce 25 amendments to the law in a so-called “sovereignty protection package” against possible foreign influence, mainly in the case of parties and the press.

“The independence of Hungary must be protected by all instruments and foreign attempts of influence [os assuntos internos da Hungria] should be impossible,” Mate Kocsis, leader of the Fidesz parliamentary group, told public radio Kossuth this Sunday.

The Fidesz party, led by ultranationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban, will introduce a package of laws aimed at politicians, parties, non-governmental organizations and media that receive support from abroad, Kocsis said.

Although the specific content of the bill is currently unknown, according to the news portal 444.hu, Fidesz justified the bill by saying that in previous elections some opposition parties allegedly received support from abroad.

Kocsis also left up in the air the idea that the planned changes would force all civic movements participating in elections to be subject to the same auditing, operating and funding rules as those governing formal political parties.

US Ambassador to Hungary David Pressman has already responded to this statement and said that it is “very dangerous” to assume that foreign powers want to interfere in Hungary’s internal affairs and use these perceived threats to restrict the right to freedom of expression. .

In 2017, the Orbán government and its parliamentary majority already approved a law that required non-governmental organizations that received more than 23 thousand euros from abroad to provide a list of donors and define themselves as a “foreigner-funded organization.”

Four years later, after the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled that it violated EU law, the law was repealed.