Hungary’s Orban ‘to close down’ pro-democracy and rights groups receiving US aid

Hungary will take legal action to eliminate non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and media outlets operating in the country that receive funding from the United States and other international sources, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Friday.

Mr Orban, an ally of US President Donald Trump, said in statements on state radio that his government was going “line by line” through organisations operating in Hungary that have received financial assistance from the United States.

He praised Mr Trump’s decision to dismantle the US Agency for International Development (USAid), the agency charged with delivering humanitarian assistance overseas, claiming such aid had been used to fund organisations that sought to “topple” his government.

“Now is the moment when these international networks have to be taken down, they have to be swept away,” Mr Orban said. “It is necessary to make their existence legally impossible.”

Hungary under Mr Orban has for years enacted crackdowns on NGOs and the country’s independent media, passing laws that critics argue seek to stigmatise and hinder groups that provide protection for women and minorities, offer legal and human rights assistance, and expose official corruption.

Those efforts ramped up in 2023 when Mr Orban’s right-wing populist government launched the Sovereignty Protection Office, an authority tasked with investigating organisations and media outlets it deems to be exerting foreign influence.

The office has the power to gather information on any groups or individuals that benefit from foreign funding and influence public debate, and Hungary’s secret services can assist in its investigations.

But opponents have compared the office with Russia’s “foreign agent” law, and said it can be used arbitrarily to target government critics, including NGOs and journalists. Anyone convicted of a violation can face prison terms of up to three years.

On Friday, Mr Orban said people who work for organisations that received USAid funding could be considered “agents”, and described Mr Trump’s moves to dismantle the US agency as like a “cleansing wind” from what he called the “Trump tornado”.

“All money coming from America should be made public, and those who receive it should have sanctions enacted against them,” Mr Orban said.

“You cannot accept money from abroad in order to influence Hungarian politics, and this will be legally enforced. Those involved will face legal consequences.”

Hungary under Mr Orban has been accused by numerous domestic and international bodies of democratic backsliding and of abusing the rights of protected minorities, and also of maintaining a wide system of public corruption and political patronage.

The European Union has withheld billions in funding to Hungary over its violations of rule-of-law and democracy standards and its failure to address deficiencies in judicial independence.