Fidesz wants foreign funds in elections to be criminalised
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“Protecting Hungary’s sovereignty is our constitutional obligation, under which we must face any debate,” Máté Kocsis, the group leader of ruling Fidesz, told a conference on Monday.
Kocsis called for setting up an institution to protect the country’s sovereignty “to monitor trends indicating foreign interference”. To stop such interference, the election law should be changed “to make it clear that the same rules apply to all civil organisations and their candidates, as to the political parties” he said. Financing and accounting for their spending must be the same whether it comes to civil groups or political parties, he said.
Foreign funds in Hungarian politics have been increasingly present since Hungary joined the European Union and simultaneously with political globalisation, Kocsis said, but “there have been no earlier examples of foreign funds financing (leftist) political campaigns” in the country, he insisted.
He called for changing the penal code to criminalise accepting foreign funds as a member or candidate of an organisation participating in an election, and to penalise such activities with up to three years imprisonment.
Totally agree, but “they” will get around such a ban. One solution would be to ban all private political donations. But then you’ll have assorted “charities” and “N.G.O.s” get in on the action, even more than they are now. Then what? Ban them, too, I guess, with the danger of sliding into authoritarianism. Is authoritarianism worse than blatant foreign interference in a country’s democratic process though? Doubtful.