Government to Submit a Bill Protecting the Country’s Independence

Hungary’s independence must be protected by all means, and foreign attempts to gain influence must be prevented, Máté Kocsis, leader of the Fidesz parliamentary group, stressed on Kossuth Radio’s Sunday Newspaper (Vasárnapi újság) program.

In this context, Máté Kocsis indicated that they intend to submit a package of laws to protect the country’s independence during the autumn session at parliament.

The aim of this is to ensure that in future the law will be able to hold to account those organizations, many of them pseudo-civilian, that are financed from abroad, as well as those parties and individuals who have also appeared around the opposition politician Gergely Karácsony, Mayor of Budapest.

The group leader recalled that in 2022, the domestic left had campaigned with dollars and euros from the US and other sources. He said that since 1990, there had been a consensus among the parties that they had not used money from foreign influence groups for domestic political and public positions of power, in response to pressure from these groups. However, last year it became clear that this had changed and it had to be stopped.

Kocsis pointed out that this is, in fact, an extension of the electoral law, as non-party organizations believe that they are not subject to the laws on party finances, and they circumvent the current legal environment.

In the future, pseudo-civil society organizations running for office would be subject to the same rules on accounting, operation, and acceptable funding as parties.

He explained that Hungarian left-wing politicians are financed from foreign, unknown sources in order to gain power in Hungary and to give foreign economic groups economic advantages at the expense of the country.

According to him, Brussels would not take the bill well, as Hungary is constantly being attacked on political grounds. “The liberal-left elite in Brussels” finds it hard to accept that Hungary has a national government and that on every issue they consider important (migration, war, or the gender issue) it represents a different side. “They will not be very enthusiastic about this law, but we are offended that while they do not give funds to Hungary, money is poured into left-wing organizations and media outlets,” he said, adding that this was not fair and not in line with European rules of operation.

Via MTI, Featured image: MTI/Máthé Zoltán