Key Points
Orban claims US funds used to manipulate Hungarian institutions
Government to send commissioner to investigate USAID funding
Legal amendments planned to protect national sovereignty
Accusations of liberal influence through civil organizations
Speaking in his state-of-the-nation address on Saturday, Orban claimed that these funds have been used to "buy journalists, judges and prosecutors, politicians, foundations, bureaucrats" and to impose what he described as "a liberal dictatorship of opinion" across the Western world, Xinhua news agency reported.
Recent reports in local media have suggested that funding from the US Agency for International Development (USAID) has been used in Hungary to undermine the government.
Orban stated that these revelations "threw the skeletons out of the closet," exposing a system designed to suppress national sovereignty by influencing civil society and political activities. He pledged that his government would "urgently create the constitutional and legal conditions" necessary to prevent pseudo-civil organisations from serving foreign interests in Hungary, adding that legal amendments could be enacted by Easter.
While further details of the planned measures have not been disclosed, Orban has emphasised that the initiative aims to safeguard national interests and prevent external forces from interfering in Hungary's political affairs.
Following Orban's speech, Alexandra Szentkiralyi, head of the ruling Fidesz party's Budapest chapter, confirmed in a Facebook post that Hungary will send a government commissioner to the US to "uncover the Hungarian agents" who have received funding from USAID. "Enough with serving foreign interests and the Brussels-based and Soros networks," she wrote.
