Funding was given to an organization that is not subject to strict party funding laws.Continue reading
The united opposition received far more money from abroad before the elections than was known, according to information released to the public.
Action for Democracy, an American NGO, sent the opposition Everyone’s Hungary Movement and associated organizations and businesses over 3 billion forints (7.6 million euros), a higher sum than previously thought, according to the National Information Center (NIK), Hungarian news agency MTI reports.
The website of parliament’s national security committee on Wednesday released a transcript of evidence given by NIK head Brigadier-General Zoltán András Kovács suggesting that the total amount of funding provided by the American organization was 3.174 billion forints, around 160 million more than previously stated, MTI adds.
This funding was on top of funding from other sources totaling 1.1 billion, 900 million forints of which came from a Swiss foundation “with the same aims” as the American NGO, according to the transcript. According to MTI, foreign financial funding sent to Hungary exceeded 4 billion forints, it added, with various political analysts and marketing specialists the ultimate beneficiaries among others.
According to Magyar Nemzet, Action for Democracy could have transferred money even before it was officially registered.
Earlier, foreign support was mentioned by the opposition’s joint candidate for prime minister, Péter Márki-Zay. The funds were not given to the parties, but to his organization, the Everybody’s Hungary Movement – thus circumventing the legal ban on parties receiving foreign funding.
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