Hungary: Lawmakers to submit new NGO law in 1-2 weeks

BUDAPEST, Hungary – A spokesman for Hungary’s governing Fidesz party says its lawmakers will likely submit a new law regulating nongovernmental organizations within two weeks.

Fidesz spokesman Janos Halasz says the law is aimed at revealing the foreign funding received by “agent organizations” seeking to influence Hungarian politics.

The law is seen targeted mainly at groups backed by Hungarian-born U.S. financier George Soros, like Transparency International and the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union.

A Fidesz lawmaker earlier said Soros-backed organizations needed to be swept out of the country.

Halasz said the law would surely be approved by lawmakers during the current spring session in parliament.

In 2014, Prime Minister Viktor Orban ordered a crackdown on civic groups supported in part by Norway, but extensive investigations and audits did not uncover any financial irregularities of note.