{"id":36430,"date":"2026-09-05T23:03:28","date_gmt":"2026-09-05T23:03:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/36430\/"},"modified":"2026-09-05T23:03:28","modified_gmt":"2026-09-05T23:03:28","slug":"boss-of-orban-backed-mcc-brussels-quits-saying-staff-have-not-been-paid-politico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/36430\/","title":{"rendered":"Boss of Orb\u00e1n-backed MCC Brussels quits, saying staff have not been paid \u2013 POLITICO"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Hungary-based Mathias Corvinus Collegium was headed by Bal\u00e1zs Orb\u00e1n, a close ally and former political director for Viktor Orb\u00e1n (no relation). Bal\u00e1zs Orb\u00e1n stepped down in June, accusing the new government of dismantling the organization \u2014 which had around 7,000 students and 300 staff. MCC Brussels was funded almost entirely by a grant from the Budapest-based college.<\/p>\n<p>Prime Minister P\u00e9ter Magyar, who won a landslide election victory in April that ended Orb\u00e1n\u2019s 16 years in power, has accused MCC of being part of a state-backed network designed to spread the political views of the former ruling party. MCC received significant support in the form of state-owned assets signed over under Orb\u00e1n.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe state is not going to finance \u2026 Mathias Corvinus Collegium institutions,\u201d Magyar said following the vote. \u201cI think this was a criminal offense, party financing mixed up with government expenditures \u2026 The future authorities will have to examine or investigate.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>According to F\u00fcredi\u2019s letter, funds have been withheld from MCC Brussels, leaving staff going unpaid and projects unable to be delivered. \u201cWithout the contractually agreed resources, our colleagues cannot function and are facing serious economic hardship,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI feel that the only way the achievements of MCC Brussels can be rescued and its legacy further developed is to terminate my contract for severe cause with immediate effect, so that I have the freedom to promote the values that MCC Brussels stood for,\u201d he went on.<\/p>\n<p>MCC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n<p>MCC Brussels established itself as a leading voice on the European right, openly arguing in defense of populism and co-hosting events with the far-right Patriots group on topics including gender, migration and election interference. The think tank has previously vowed to find other sources of funding and continue its campaigning.<\/p>\n<p>In June, the EU\u2019s database of lobbyists and campaign groups <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/eu-transparency-watchdog-suspends-viktor-orban-mcc\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">suspended the membership of MCC Brussels<\/a>, a move that could see it lose access to the European Parliament. The group denied irregularities in its registration with the Transparency Register and said the decision was an attempt to quash it for ideological reasons.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Hungary-based Mathias Corvinus Collegium was headed by Bal\u00e1zs Orb\u00e1n, a close ally and former political director for&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":36431,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5],"tags":[18,496,169,348,326,996,938,494,940,4137,475,57],"class_list":["post-36430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brussels","tag-brussels","tag-elections","tag-finance","tag-hungarian-politics","tag-hungary","tag-migration","tag-peter-magyar","tag-populism","tag-rights","tag-tanks","tag-transparency","tag-viktor-orban"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@be\/117220934092164932","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36430"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36430\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}