“Don’t want to be Soros’ debt slaves”

The draft law is clearly aimed at the upcoming EU election campaign, in which the Hungarian government under Viktor Orban hopes that this will bring a significant change in the Union and its policies. Patriotic forces that are more interested in a Europe of fatherlands rather than a "super USSR" that ignores the interests of its citizens. But they also seem to have learned lessons from the last elections in Hungary. The law to “protect sovereignty” is intended to ban foreign interference in election campaigns in the future.

No funding from abroad

More specifically, the draft law that the government has now presented will criminalize foreign financing of election campaigns. At the same time, a new authority to control NGOs is to be set up. The country's "Law for the Protection of Sovereignty" "puts a stop to all electoral fraud and provides for penalties of up to three years in prison for anyone who uses funds from abroad in the election campaign ," said Fidesz politician Mate Kocsis on Facebook.

Dispute at the last election

Kocsis also wrote on Facebook as justification for the law: "It is known to everyone that they wanted to influence the parliamentary elections in Hungary from outside in 2022. The left-wing politicians played with laws and accepted money from foreign organizations and wanted to gain power from it. With that "The sovereignty of our country was threatened, but due to the current rules it could not have had serious consequences. To prevent this, we created a sovereignty protection law."

After last year's parliamentary election, which Orban won by a landslide, the Hungarian government published several intelligence reports showing that the accepted around eight million euros from a US-based non-governmental organization for its election campaign opposition alliance had . All other forces in Hungary - from the far left to the far right - joined forces to overthrow Orban - in vain.

In his interview with Tucker Carlson this summer, the Hungarian prime minister also stated that US taxpayer money had been used to finance a campaign against him. The Hungarian opposition vehemently denies the government's allegations. She explained that the funds came from Hungarian citizens living abroad.

Laws against NGO influence

One of the best-known of these citizens is the US billionaire George Soros, who was and is openly involved in “regime changes” with his NGO network. It would be almost surprising if the self-proclaimed philanthropist hadn't also tried to intervene in the Hungarian election campaign with financial support. Hungary has already come into conflict with the EU and the European Court of Justice in the past with its laws against the influence of foreign NGOs.

In 2021, a Hungarian law was overturned at the European level that required NGOs to include a note in their publications and websites identifying them as an “organization supported from abroad”. In other countries too, foreign influence in election campaigns is not welcome - just think of the USA. Likewise, foreign NGOs must also register there in accordance with the “Foreign Agents Registration Act” . But Israel, India, China and Russia have also passed laws intended to prevent influence exerted by foreign non-governmental organizations.

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