The European Union seems to have marked an important point in the tug-of-war with Budapest on respect for the rule of law: the Hungarian parliament has officially abolished the 2017 law wanted by Prime Minister Viktor Orban against alleged foreign funding to NGOs. Last June the EU Court of Justice rejected it because it was considered a “discriminatory and unjustified restriction”, today the ultra-nationalist premier has been forced to step back, albeit reluctantly, in a framework that defines the fruit of “imperialism to liberate »Of the West. The law in question is part of the so-called “anti-Soros” package which has opened a very hard battle front with the European Union. In this case, the law in question required NGOs active in Hungarian territory – especially those committed to human rights and migrants – to report and make public the personal data of their foreign donors if their individual annual donations exceeded 500,000 forints (1,380 euros). Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s government explained that the goal was to have greater transparency and prevent “NGOs from trying to exert political pressure on the government with the support of foreign powers.” However, many had argued that it only served to further suppress the dissent of critics of the government and, for example, its migration policy, and to exert further control over the activities of organizations such as Amnesty International, Greenpeace and the Helsinki Committee for human rights. NGOs also had to declare that they were foreign-funded organizations on their websites and in all their press materials.
This is the third time in less than a year that Hungarian laws have been found to be contrary to European law. Last May the Court of Justice had also condemned Orban’s migration policy, a month later it was the turn of the anti-NGO law, in October the one on the university was “condemned”, written with the aim – achieved – of expelling from Budapest the Central European University, founded by the US millionaire of Hungarian origin George Soros, who was forced to move his activities from Budapest to Vienna. to do so, Orban had passed legislation that obliges all foreign universities active in Hungary to have a “real activity” in their respective countries of origin. Ceu alone had not been able to present these credentials.
Now something seems to have changed and for the first time the action of the EU Court has forced Orban to slow down. Slow down, do not reverse the direction: no one in Hungary is under the illusion that the premier has renounced his “control plan”: the Hungarian Court of Auditors, led by a former politician from Fidesz, Orban’s party, will in fact be in charge of report to the government on the activities and funds of all organizations in which the budgets exceed € 50,000 per year, with the exception of national, sports and religious ones.