Orban’s Transparency Law Targets Hungarian Critics: New Crackdown Unveiled

In Hun­gary,  crit­ics of Orban are fac­ing unprece­dent­ed restric­tions as the rul­ing Fidesz par­ty pro­pos­es leg­is­la­tion that could fun­da­men­tal­ly alter press free­dom and polit­i­cal oppo­si­tion. On 17 May 2025, Deutsche Welle report­ed that Prime Min­is­ter Vik­tor Orban’s gov­ern­ment pre­sent­ed a draft “trans­paren­cy of pub­lic life” law that would allow author­i­ties to mon­i­tor, restrict, penal­ize, and poten­tial­ly ban orga­ni­za­tions deemed threats to nation­al sov­er­eign­ty. The leg­is­la­tion tar­gets jour­nal­ists, polit­i­cal oppo­nents, NGOs, and media out­lets receiv­ing any for­eign funding.

The arti­cle begins:

“The bugs have over­win­tered,” Vik­tor Orban said ear­li­er this year, refer­ring to jour­nal­ists, polit­i­cal oppo­nents and his crit­ics. “We will dis­man­tle the finan­cial machine that has used cor­rupt dol­lars to buy politi­cians, judges, jour­nal­ists, pseu­do-NGOs and polit­i­cal activists. We will elim­i­nate the entire shad­ow army.” For Hun­gary’s pop­ulist prime min­is­ter, that time has now come. This week, Orban’s Fidesz par­ty pre­sent­ed a bill that, accord­ing to The Asso­ci­at­ed Press news agency, “would allow the gov­ern­ment to mon­i­tor, restrict, penal­ize and poten­tial­ly ban orga­ni­za­tions it deems a threat to nation­al sov­er­eign­ty.” Report­ing the news, Hun­gary’s largest inde­pen­dent news por­tal Telex, which is usu­al­ly rather cau­tious in its choice of words, wrote that Hun­gary had left Europe. Its report was accom­pa­nied by a graph­ic of a black boot sole embla­zoned with the Fidesz logo, as well as that of the Russ­ian domes­tic intel­li­gence ser­vice, the FSB.

          Read more: https://www.dw.com/en/hungarys-orban-plans-transparency-law-to-muzzle-critics/a‑72571703

Key Points

• The Hun­gar­i­an Sov­er­eign­ty Pro­tec­tion Office would gain pow­er to clas­si­fy any orga­ni­za­tion receiv­ing for­eign sup­port, includ­ing EU fund­ing or even books from abroad
• Orga­ni­za­tions list­ed in a spe­cial reg­is­ter would lose access to the 1% income tax dona­tion rule and face heavy fines or bans for receiv­ing for­eign funds
• Oppo­si­tion leader Peter Mag­yar called the bill “anoth­er step on the Putin path” while Budapest May­or com­pared Hun­gary’s tra­jec­to­ry to Russia
• Gov­ern­ment spokesper­son Zoltan Kovacs jus­ti­fied the law as nec­es­sary to com­bat “pro-war and pro-Ukrain­ian pro­pa­gan­da” from for­eign-fund­ed media and NGOs

Orban and the Global National Conservative Alliance: Transatlantic Networks, and the Rise of Illiberalism

Vik­tor Orbán has posi­tioned Hun­gary at the fore­front of the Glob­al Nation­al Con­ser­v­a­tive Alliance (GNCA), lever­ag­ing insti­tu­tions like the Math­ias Corv­i­nus Col­legium (MCC) to build transat­lantic net­works that unite US con­ser­v­a­tives and Euro­pean nation­al­ists around an “illib­er­al” agen­da. The MCC, described as Orbán’s elite fac­to­ry, receives mas­sive state fund­ing and serves as a hub for right-wing intel­lec­tu­als, host­ing events and part­ner­ships that rein­force Hungary’s mod­el as a blue­print for the glob­al right. This strat­e­gy is vis­i­ble in the deep­en­ing polit­i­cal alliance between Orbán and Amer­i­can con­ser­v­a­tives, with fig­ures like Tuck­er Carl­son and Peter Boghoss­ian ampli­fy­ing Hungary’s anti-lib­er­al, anti-LGBTQ, and anti-“woke” narratives.

The expan­sion of MCC’s foot­print in Brus­sels and its recruit­ment of West­ern aca­d­e­mics under­score Orbán’s ambi­tion to reshape Euro­pean dis­course and export Hungary’s illib­er­al mod­el, even as crit­ics high­light the ero­sion of aca­d­e­m­ic free­dom and demo­c­ra­t­ic norms, as seen in exten­sive ties between US “free speech” uni­ver­si­ty lead­ers and Orbán’s Hun­gary. Ana­lysts note that these efforts not only con­sol­i­date domes­tic pow­er but also facil­i­tate Russ­ian influ­ence oper­a­tions by ampli­fy­ing nation­al con­ser­v­a­tive themes. Orbán’s approach has inspired sim­i­lar move­ments across Europe, con­tribut­ing to the for­ma­tion of new right-wing alliances in the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment and chal­leng­ing the lib­er­al demo­c­ra­t­ic consensus.

Exter­nal report­ing con­firms that Hungary’s gov­ern­ment has sys­tem­at­i­cal­ly erod­ed checks and bal­ances, using edu­ca­tion­al and cul­tur­al insti­tu­tions to entrench a durable con­ser­v­a­tive “deep state” and posi­tion­ing Budapest as a mag­net for right-wing intel­lec­tu­als worldwide.

Exter­nal References:

1. Hungary’s Plan to Build an Army of U.S. Intellectuals

2. Hun­gary: Orban announces new far-right Euro­pean alliance

3. At con­ser­v­a­tive con­fer­ence, Orban, Trump revive right-wing alliance

Disclaimer

The Glob­al Influ­ence Oper­a­tions Report (GIOR) employs AI through­out the post­ing process, includ­ing gen­er­at­ing sum­maries of news items, the intro­duc­tion, key points, and often the “con­text” sec­tion. We rec­om­mend ver­i­fy­ing all infor­ma­tion before use. Addi­tion­al­ly, images are AI-gen­er­at­ed and intend­ed sole­ly for illus­tra­tive pur­pos­es. While they rep­re­sent the events or indi­vid­u­als dis­cussed, they should not be inter­pret­ed as real-world photography.