{"id":100421,"date":"2025-05-14T09:29:14","date_gmt":"2025-05-14T09:29:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/100421\/"},"modified":"2025-05-14T09:29:14","modified_gmt":"2025-05-14T09:29:14","slug":"orbans-fidesz-party-proposes-russia-style-crackdown-on-hungarys-civil-society-politico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/100421\/","title":{"rendered":"Orb\u00e1n\u2019s Fidesz party proposes Russia-style crackdown on Hungary\u2019s civil society \u2013 POLITICO"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The proposed bill is part of a broader pattern of democratic backsliding in Hungary, where Orb\u00e1n\u2019s government has increasingly targeted independent institutions and dissenting voices. It also echoes Russia\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/us-russia-putin-ngos-idUSBRE86K05M20120721\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u201cforeign agent\u201d law<\/a> that the Kremlin uses to suppress NGOs and independent voices.<\/p>\n<p>Groups placed on the Hungarian government\u2019s list would lose access to donations from a 1 percent income tax on citizens, and be required to prove that all funding is domestic. Leaders of these organizations would also face strict disclosure rules including mandatory asset declarations.<\/p>\n<p>The bill as well allows authorities to conduct intrusive inspections, seize documents and devices, and impose severe fines \u2014 up to 25 times the amount of any foreign funding received, to be paid within 15 days.<\/p>\n<p>The bill says threats to national sovereignty include influencing public opinion, promoting democratic debate, or challenging state-defined values like Christian culture and traditional family roles.<\/p>\n<p>Fidesz lawmaker J\u00e1nos Hal\u00e1sz <a href=\"https:\/\/www.parlament.hu\/irom42\/11923\/11923.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">justified the bill<\/a> by saying that in recent years, \u201cabuses that seriously violate Hungary\u2019s sovereignty\u201d had been exposed.<\/p>\n<p>In an fiery speech on March 15, Orb\u00e1n <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/viktor-orban-vows-crackdown-shadow-army-political-opponents\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">vowed to crack down<\/a> on a \u201cshadow army\u201d of political opponents, journalists, judges and activists in the country, whom he said were working for foreign powers. He compared\u00a0his political opponents to \u201cinsects\u201d that deserved \u201cshame and contempt,\u201d and hinted at a coming \u201cspring cleaning.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The proposed bill is part of a broader pattern of democratic backsliding in Hungary, where Orb\u00e1n\u2019s government has&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":100422,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7655],"tags":[2766,46647,41727,2190,5111,7338,332,11587,1781],"class_list":{"0":"post-100421","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-russia","8":"tag-culture","9":"tag-eu-russia-relations","10":"tag-hungarian-politics","11":"tag-hungary","12":"tag-parliament","13":"tag-rule-of-law","14":"tag-russia","15":"tag-transparency","16":"tag-viktor-orban"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114505486465914667","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100421"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100421\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}