Tisza Party calls for radical overhaul of Hungary’s political funding system

The opposition Tisza Party will propose a fundamental transformation of Hungary’s system of political party financing with a view to creating a fairer and more transparent system that relies more on grassroots funding and decisions by voters, the party’s leader said in a statement on Friday.

Péter Magyar said the current system was “bad, disorganised and wasteful”, and did not take into consideration the real levels of support behind parties.

The new regulations to be proposed by Tisza would have to be capable of preventing governments from using public funds for partisan political purposes, campaigns and discrediting other parties, Magyar said.

He said Tisza was the most popular party in Hungary today and was financed purely from grassroots donations. At the same time, he said, “fake parties and parties without any real public support keep getting hundreds of millions of forints each year for nothing.”

“Several of these parties were established or are funded by the government from taxpayer money for the sole purpose of taking a few votes away from their main challenger,” Magyar said.