Hungarian left’s election campaigns financed from Brussels?

The Hungarian left’s European Parliament and local election campaigns are being financed from Brussels, the communications director of ruling Fidesz, István Hollik, said on Sunday.

Despite the recent reports of the “Soros network” undergoing changes, “they want to continue being active in eastern Europe”, Hollik told public broadcaster Kossuth Radio. At the same time, given their good relations with the “Brussels bureaucrats”, they have managed to get Brussels to finance “these attempts at interference”, he said. Hollik said Brussels had 4 billion forints’ worth of funds to spend on the campaigns, of which left-wing organisations had so far received 500 million forints.

He said it was “particularly interesting” that recipients of direct funding from Brussels had all been supported by the “Soros network” in the past. “Nobody can seriously think that this isn’t closely connected with the fact that there are local and European Parliament elections next year,” he said. “The reality is that Brussels is financing the Hungarian left’s campaign in advance.” This, he argued, was evidenced by the funding awarded to organisations operating small left-wing media outlets outside Budapest, such as a website that has been “attacking” the Debrecen local council.

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Hollik called it “outrageous” that Brussels was financing the Hungarian left while withholding the funding Hungary was entitled to. “We dare hope that the EU funds Hungary is entitled to are still there and haven’t been spent on something else,” he said. “This isn’t a handout, because when we entered the European Union, we opened the Hungarian market to the strong western European businesses with more capital, and in return the EU committed to assisting Hungary’s progress with development funds,” Hollik said. “This is the agreement that Brussels has now violated, because it is withholding these funds while financing the left.”