Hungary launches brazen assault against Transparency International, Helsinki Committee and Civil Liberties Union

Szilárd Németh, the Vice President of Fidesz, named Transparency International, the Helsinki Committee and the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union (TASZ) as the three organizations that the Orbán government would “clean out of here” and confirmed that it would do so,  “using any methods available.” Specifically, Mr. Németh–the government’s top bully–declared:

“The pseudo-NGOs of the Soros Empire are supported in order to force the world of global capital and political correctness onto national governments. We need to use all means to hold back these organizations and I believe that we must sweep them out of here.” 

Szilárd Németh, Vice-President of Fidesz

Szilárd Németh, Vice-President of Fidesz

Observers suggest that forthcoming legislation against NGOs will aim to shame and paralyze organizations that receive grants from foreign funds through new red tape and cumbersome reporting requirements. This legislation will likely be modeled on similar laws introduced in Russia and Israel, with inspiration coming from Arthur J. Finkelstein, according to the Népszava daily, who has done consulting work for the Orbán government. Initially, the government tried to deny that it had any relationship at all with Mr. Finkelstein, with Minister of the Prime Minister’s Office János Lázár once going as far as to claim that he never even heard of the man. Then Prime Minister Viktor Orbán confirmed that he had, indeed, met with Mr. Finkelstein on several occasions. It is widely believed that Mr. Finkelstein has worked on Fidesz’s political and campaign strategies for at least five years. Moreover, Mr. Finkelstein co-owns a firm in London with Árpád Habony, Prime Minister Orbán’s mysterious billionaire adviser and media tycoon. Mr. Finkelstein’s campaign style is based on going to any length to demonize one’s opponent, to distill campaign messages and ideas to simplistic, polemical Manichean allegories pitting the “good” side against the “dark” side, with verbal attacks and key words used repetitively, and going after liberal and centrist politics.

This is not the first time that the Orbán regime launches an assault against NGOs that have been critical of systemic corruption in Hungary and the demise of checks and balances in the political system. In a letter from 2014, Mr. Orbán personally directed Hungarian authorities to launch a raid against NGOs. TASZ spent nearly two years engaged in legal action against the government, in an effort to determine who instructed police to raid a prominent NGO in Budapest and investigations against some 62 others.We now know that Mr. Orbán personally requested for this to happen.  

But what may be behind this renewed demonisation of NGOs? Some publicists have suggested that now that the migrant and refugee crisis appears to waning, the government must find a new enemy for Hungarians to hate. Fidesz was singularly successful in sparking a visceral hatred of refugees among ordinary Hungarians, who have come to passionately loathe nearly everyone that is different in any way. But the refugee act may be getting old–so why not re-heat a new enemy: the politically correct, liberally-minded Hungarian lackeys of international bogeyman George Soros?

András Schiffer, who once worked as a lawyer for the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union and at the time defended Mr. Orbán and Co. in legal action under the previous Socialist government of Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány, called the most recent threat against NGOs a “provocation and a bluff,” as well as a new strategy of political communication.

“Even Szilárd Németh can’t be so stupid,” said Mr. Schiffer, who noted that forcing the directors of private NGOs to make public information on their income is unconstitutional.

It may be unconstitutional, but what Fidesz is clearly trying to do is demonise people who are employed by liberal, “politically correct” NGOs and spread malicious information about their salaries and personal wealth–making it appear that they are rich liberals in cahoots with international big money.

A friend of mine, Szilárd Kalmár, who runs a small non-profit in Budapest and serves meals to the homeless in the 8th District, wrote the following on Facebook: “I own a 1967 Volkswagen Beetle, which is scrap and has not been serviced. I have a 1995 Skoda Felicia, which I bought for 95,000 forints ($400). I own a Waffenrad bicycle worth around 15,000 forints ($70) and a laptop from 2007. I also have a 3 million forint loan. Do I need to say anything else about my financial situation, you bastards?”

Sub-human refugees are yesterday’s news. Meet the new public enemy number 1: the community activist and NGO sector employee.

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