U.S.-German Sponsors of Hungarian Opposition Parties Inadvertently Revealed

Names that have only been mentioned in the Hungarian conservative press, and subsequently denied by the left as conspiracy theories, have had a very public “coming-out” during the announcement of the 2023 Budapest Forum, organized by the Budapest Mayor’s Office and George Soros’ Central European University (CEU).

Some of the names that have been implicated in the pre-election financing scandal of the Péter Márki-Zay lead opposition coalition, such as the shady U.S. foundations Action for Democracy, have now come out openly to support, or partner with the liberal Budapest mayor’s conference that is introduced as a forum on “building Sustainable Democracies”.

As the Hungarian blog, the Tűzfalcsoport (Firewall Group) revealed,

the October conference will be sponsored by the largest international, mainly U.S. liberal-progressive funds, as well as by the Budapest taxpayer through the Municipality’s involvement.

A number of the organizations listed as partners of the conference, have tried to deny any kind of connection with the opposition in the past. These include:

– NED – National Endowment for Democracy,
– Friedrich Ebert Stiftung,
– Heinrich Böll Stiftun
– Action for Democracy
– ERSTE Stiftung
– FES Vienna
– German Marshall Fund/German Marshall Fund of the United States
– Green European Foundation
– North Atlantic Treaty Organization
– The Greens/EFA in the European Parliament

The event has three hosts: the Municipality of Budapest, Political Capital and the CEU Democracy Institute.

NED – National Endowment for Democracy, has become a household name among the Hungarian public, when the American organization was implicated in the domestic scandal during which the foreign financing ties of the Hungarian left-wing parties have been revealed after the 2022 elections. In essence, the NED is the official appearance of the CIA abroad, or at least this is how the national security document succinctly described its role, writes the Tűzfalcsoport. The NED was revealed in the investigation conducted by the Hungarian intelligence services as one of the international donors of the opposition’s election campaign.

NED was founded in 1983 in the United States, its main goal was to support democratic processes in the countries of the world. Internationally, NED was part of the 2006 Belarusian opposition presidential candidate’s campaign, supported opposition parties during the 2011 “Arab Spring”, supported Uyghur groups in China, and in 2019 also financed civil foundations in Hong Kong. NED receives an annual appropriation from the United States budget, it is included in the US Agency for International Development (USAID) chapter of the US State Department, and is under congressional oversight as a non-governmental organization. In 2019, NED managed $135 million, which came entirely from US government agencies.

Hence through the NED, Gergely Karácsony’s event essentially receives support from the American central budget,

points out the Tűzfalcsoport.

Another well-known American organization is the “German Marshall Fund/German Marshall Fund of the United States” (GMF).  The GMF’s donor list includes several institutions of the European Union, Swedish institutions, American embassies, tech companies, aid and development funds, as well as the foundations of George Soros. The biggest supporter of this organization is USAID, the United States Agency for International Development.

The USAID last year alone supported NGOs and organizations in Hungary linked to Soros and the left with a total of EUR 3.1 million. For years, USAID has been conducting direct political activities worldwide, including in our region and in Hungary. Samantha Power, the organization’s director, recently visited Hungary.

Only to mention one of the German sponsors of the Budapest Forum, the Heinrich Böll Stiftung among its partner. The foundation has close ties with the Germany radical leftists Greens, their leader, and current Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock had been reportedly awarded an enormously generous, 39 month scholarship by the foundations. They are a radical pro-migration institution that also openly promotes a new family model built on progressive gender ideology, rejecting the traditional nuclear family-model of a female mother and male father.

Featured Image: Facebook Karácsony Gergely