Hungary: Law against NGOs off the table for now
The Hungarian ruling party Fidesz has postponed the adoption of its transparency law, which had been planned for this week, until after the summer break. The proposed law foresees harsh sanctions against all civil organisations and media outlets that have ever received foreign funding. As a reason for the postponement Fidesz parliamentary group leader Máté Kocsis said that there was a consensus on the purpose of the law, but not on the methods. What's going on?
Highly unusual
Válasz Online suspects that the Fidesz parliamentary group opposed the prime minister over the law:
“The obvious interpretation is that the adoption of the draft law, which caused serious outrage in Hungary and abroad, was postponed until the autumn because there were also those within the government who tried to restrain the prime minister and want a more cautious approach. ... Both the backtracking and the citing of objective counter-arguments are very unusual moves, especially after the prime minister had already expressed his support for the bill.”
Common sense prevailed
Even the pro-government blog website PestiSrácok considers the draft law in its current form inadequate:
“Thank goodness, common sense has prevailed! The Sovereignty Protection Act must be enforced, but the method described in the transparency bill was grotesque and open to attack. ... The transparency of NGOs and the media should indeed be mandatory, but curbing foreign influence and exposing abuses is the task of the intelligence services and law enforcement agencies.”
Just a rehash
The ruling party needs a controversial issue, not a law, writes political scientist Gábor Török on Facebook:
“The whole law is of no use to Fidesz if it goes through parliament; what Fidesz wants is for it to be discussed. It is using the law to whip up hysteria among the opposition again and, ideally, get Péter Magyar to join in and take up the cause. So far this strategy has only been partly, if at all, successful. But if the law were to be voted on now, it would certainly remain as it is. Fidesz must therefore continue to push the issue and then perhaps raise the stakes.”