EU Commission Denies Aiming to Influence Hungarian Politics with Outside Sources

European Commission spokesman Eric Mamer calls the claims in the questions contained in Hungary's National Consultation on the protection of national sovereignty completely untrue. It's worth taking a closer look at the situation regarding each of these issues. Next in its series, Magyar Nemzet examines the consultation's question pertaining to foreign funds influencing domestic politics.

Brüsszel, 2023. június 7. Ursula von der Leyen, az Európai Bizottság (EB) elnöke (j) és Ylva Johansson belügyi biztos érkezik az uniós testület heti rendes ülésére Brüsszelben 2023. június 7-én. MTI/EPA/Olivier Hoslet Fotó: Olivier Hoslet

"The allegations in Hungary's National Consultation questions are completely untrue," and President Ursula von der Leyen was not at all concerned that she was featured on a poster campaign, European Commission Spokesman Eric Mamer said in response to Euronews' question. One of the eleven questions contained in the consultation deals with the issue exerting influence with foreign money.

The eleventh question on the questionnaire reads: "There are attempts to influence Hungarian politics with money from Brussels and overseas. What do you think about this?" The two possible replies to choose from are: "We need to be more stringent, i.e. enact more rigorous legislation, to prevent foreign influence," and "The current legislation is adequate."

It is worth reiterating that from the end of last summer it gradually came to light that Hungary's left-wing opposition campaign in 2022 was largely financed from abroad.

The Everybody's Hungary Movement (MMM) of the opposition's joint PM candidate Peter Marki-Zay, had managed in two years to increase its income 642-fold compared to the starting amount. In 2022, the movement received 1.85 billion forints (nearly 5 million euros) from the US Action for Democracy organization.

Action for Democracy, which was set up by David Koranyi, a confidant of Budapest Mayor Gergely Karacsony and ex-PM Gordon Bajnai, and promoted by the Soros empire heir, Alex Soros, on social media, and which raised money from unknown sources shortly before the 2022 national elections, had transferred a total of over four billion forints (approx. 10.5 million euros) to political organizations in Hungary, including the 1.85 billion forints channeled into Marki-Zay's movement.

Financial benefits have become a major fixture of the Left's policy. This is evidenced by a key Action for Democracy advisory board member Wesley Clark, whom Marki-Zay says he "consulted" during the final stages of the election campaign. The retired general  was one of the main figures responsible for the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia back in 1999.

"I'm absolutely not an expert on the issue, so I sought out experts on this, such as former US four-star general Wesley Clark - with whom we have consulted on this issue - and other major NATO experts such as the US-born Hungarian Evelin Farkas, and I will listen to their opinions on the further issues," Peter Marki-Zay said in InfoRadio's Arena program on March 9, 2022, just weeks after the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian war. He was responding to the interviewer's query regarding his competence in defense and security policy.

During the campaign, Marki-Zay took a clearly pro-war stance, saying, among other things, that he would even provide Hungarian military support to Ukraine in the war against Russia if NATO were to bring such a decision. In fact, he campaigned a few days before the elections, saying that "Now, Ukraine is fighting our war".

It is telling that Peter Ungar, party chairman of LMP - also part of the left-wing party alliance -, said that foreign interest groups, not national but "service-type people", may have endeavored to promote a change in government by financially supporting the opposition.

The funding background of Mayor Gergely Karacsony's 99 Movement is also murky. What is known is that Gabor Perjes, who handled the movement's finances, paid more than 500 million forints (1.3 million euros) in cash into the organization's account on nineteen occasions between August 2021 and September 2022. Most of the donations came in after Karacsony was defeated in primary elections, and more than four-fifths of the money was in euros and pounds sterling.

Another 99 Movement member, Erzsebet Pusztai, said in July of this year that "these are probably foreign donors who have supported the movement in euros." Just who these generous donors are is still unknown, however, ongoing criminal proceedings may eventually provide some insight.

Last but not least, Brussels has also opened up the money tap. While the bulk of EU funds due to the country are still being withheld, they have embarked on financing a number of left-wing media outlets and leftist-liberal activist groups. As reported by Magyar Nemzet in September of this year, MEP Anna Donath testified at length that "the results of the work done two years ago have now reached Hungarian NGOs. Four Hungarian NGOs have received a total of 1.4 billion forints from this fund. The money will be distributed among Hungarian NGOs through a tender system". The stipulated amount was awarded to Okotars Foundation-led four-member consortium including the Autonomia Foundation, the Karpatok Foundation-Hungary and the Kozossegfejlesztok Association.

These organizations are regular participants in anti-government protests. For example, in 2021, Okotars head Veronika Mora, voiced the need to stand up against the so called "Stop Soros bill", which was passed by the National Assembly to mandate greater transparency in organizations funded by the billionaire speculator.

In the spring of 2023, Anna Donath in an interview to Magyar Hang spoke about the relations between the Momentum party and NGOs, which reveals that the MEP is not entirely selfless in her efforts to provide resources to anti-government NGOs. In a YouTube program on Komporszag channel, Donath stated that "it's interesting how and when we use NGOs" in politics.

Cover photo: European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and EU Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson arrive June 7, 2023, for the weekly regular meeting of the EU body in Brussels  (Photo: MTI/EPA/Olivier Hoslet)