USAID – The Machinery of Political Manipulation 3: The Pressure Network in Hungary

A foundation based in Pecs, southern Hungary, was one of the major beneficiaries of a chapter within USAID's Central European program that focused on increasing the capacities of political pressure organizations, according to the report by the Sovereignty Protection Office on the distribution and use of USAID funds in Hungary. The document exposes a corruption network aimed at overthrowing and staging a coup against Hungary’s lawfully elected national government. The third installment of the article series by Magyar Nemzet explores how much USAID money was funneled into so-called "independent media”.

Photo: Getty Images/J. David Ake

USAID's network in Hungary

As detailed in our previous article, USAID did not operate alone in Central Europe. The U.S. State Department, George Soros's network, various nonprofits, and other entities portrayed as aid organizations joined the mission, which in Hungary’s case was essentially aimed at toppling Hungary's sovereign government.

The German Marshall Fund (GMF) was one of the major sponsors, providing resources to pressure groups independently of USAID. One of GMF’s primary beneficiaries was the Power of Humanity Foundation, based in Pecs, which received millions of dollars from various foreign organizations.

Another GMF partner was the Hungarian Helsinki Committee, while Zinc Network—mentioned in part 2 of the series of articles—was linked to the Center for Sustainable Media, founded by former 444.hu journalist Peter Erdelyi. The most significant media collaborators of the U.S. Embassy in Budapest were the Okotars Foundation and the Mertek Media Monitor. In addition to USAID, the National Democratic Institute (NDI) was also active, with its Hungarian partners being the DemNet Foundation and NDI Hungary Nonprofit Kft, led by Violetta Vajda.

Rather than working through regional partner organizations, Dexis Consulting Group sought to implement its part of the USAID program by recruiting coordinators from the region. In 2023, Dexis and USAID directly provided 28.6 million forints to the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union (TASZ) for "nationwide efforts to restore the rule of law." 

The funding was used to strengthen TASZ’s presence in Pecs, Debrecen, and Miskolc.

Capacity building

As mentioned, the first pillar of the USAID Central Europe Program was the capacity building, expansion and reinforcement of pressure groups. GMF executed this effort in Hungary through the coordination of the Power of Humanity Foundation. On its website, the foundation did not list USAID as a sponsor of its so-called Incubator Grants, while its Catalyst Grants were reportedly financed through the Proteus project within the European Commission’s CERV program. This highlights the entanglement between EU institutions and USAID, a connection we have previously pointed out.

So far, the Power of Humanity Foundation has disbursed over 365 million forints to 276 applicants in this project, with the explicit aim of counterbalancing the politicization of funding for political pressure organizations. Successful applicants received both professional and financial support, and they were expected to align their operations with the project’s objectives and integrate their organizations into the network. To facilitate this networking, the funded groups were selected in collaboration with other rural political pressure organizations, such as the Alternative Communities Association in Debrecen, the Dialogue Association in Miskolc, and the Motivation Collective in Szeged, as noted in the Sovereignty Protection Office’s report.

The study pointed out that the Power of Humanity Foundation functioned within this network structure,

operating as one of several political pressure groups that filed complaints with both the Hungarian Constitutional Court and the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg regarding Hungary’s transparency law on foreign-funded organizations.

Media dependent on funding from abroad

The second pillar of the CEP program—strengthening “independent media”—was implemented through USAID’s partnership with Zinc Network. The U.S. State Department also participated in the project, with the U.S. Embassy in Budapest repeatedly announcing its Free Media grant. Zinc Network directly funded the operation of the media outlets Atlatszo, Direkt36, and 444.hu, though the exact amounts remain unknown.

Magyar Nemzet also covered the Free Media grant in detail, the funds of which were awarded by the Mertek Media Monitior and the Okotars Foundation. These grants ceased after Donald Trump took office, with the final payments never made. The Sovereignty Protection Office notes that while the total budget is unclear, it is known that USAID planned to allocate nearly 320 million forints to opposition media in Hungary over a year, by the spring of 2025.

In the first funding round announced in January 2024, nearly 116 million forints were disbursed to fifteen applicants. In the second round, over 30 million forints out of an available 40 million were awarded to opposition media outlets. However, due to the freezing of USAID funds, 26 winning editorial offices and political pressure organizations lost access to 173 million forints in the third round.

Between 2022 and 2024, opposition media in Hungary were financed not only by USAID and its partner organizations but also by the U.S. State Department and various nonprofit and for-profit entities collaborating with it.

For example, Telex Academy's journalism training program received $740,000 from the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, which also participated in preparing the USAID Central Europe Program.

Additionally, the California-based nonprofit organization Internews spent tens of millions of dollars in the region in previous years and announced in late 2022 that it would launch media support programs in Hungary. Beneficiaries included Magyar Jeti Zrt, which operates 444.hu, and the Independent Journalism Foundation, led by Balazs Weyer, which maintains the Independent Media Center.

The next installment of this series will examine the funding provided to organizations that promote the rule of law and voter participation within USAID programs.