Jobbik: Authority requests the pro-government NGO accounts for donations from state-owned electricity company

The Hungarian data protection authority (NAIH) has declared donations from state-owned energy company MVM to the Civil Cooperation Foundation (CÖKA) to be public funds and requested the NGO to account for them, Jobbik said on Sunday.

As we wrote on May, the opposition Jobbik party has filed a complaint at the chief public prosecutor’s office over a 508 million forint (EUR 1.6m) donation received by the pro-government Civil Unity Forum (CÖF) from state-owned energy company MVM last year.

Jobbik’s István Szávay told a press conference that the party was “sure” the money had been used to fund CÖKA’s anti-opposition billboard campaign showing Jobbik leader Gábor Vona and Democratic Coalition’s Ferenc Gyurcsány with a circus clown.

The donation is more than half of MVM’s annual funds for supporting NGOs and exceeds Jobbik‘s annual budget, Szávay said. If Jobbik is elected to government, such practices will be exposed and eliminated, he vowed. Public donations will flow exclusively to organisations doing valuable work, he said.

Source: MTI