In his September 23rd address to the yearly assembly of the Clinton Global Initiative, President Barack Obama declared the support for civil society around the globe as a matter of national security for the US. He directly named a number of countries which have launched recent attacks on their own respective civil society organizations. Hungary was one such country mentioned. While the relationship between previous Hungarian governments and local NGOs has never historically been one of perfect amiability, this summer, Viktor Orbán’s conservative government mounted an unprecedented attack on Hungarian civil society.
After Fidesz’s re-election in March 2014, senior party and cabinet members, most notably, János Lázár, the minister responsible for the Prime Minister’s Office, accused specific organizations benefitting from the financial support of The Norwegian NGO Fund, of having a leftist political bias. In May 2014, a leading Hungarian news site leaked a governmental document, which mentioned the blacklisting of a dozen NGOs, all deemed ‘problematic’ by the government for their alleged leftist ties. This list included some of the most respected advocates of political and human rights, minority rights, governmental transparency as well as other similar causes. In July 2014, the Prime Minister himself took a stance on this topic and in his now infamous speech, discussing the ideal of an illiberal state, he described these independent associations as not only ‘Political activists paid by foreigners’ but also as the main impediment to the construction of his newly proposed system of governance.
In parallel with this rhetorical assault, The Government Control Office (KEHI), a public agency originally designed to check governmental actions, but de-facto acting as an intermediary for the Hungarian Cabinet, started investigating the financial records of all blacklisted NGOs. The process culminated in mid-September when The National Bureau of Investigation raided the headquarters of Ökotárs and DemNet, the umbrella-organizations in charge for the distribution of the grants from the Norwegian Fund. Meanwhile the scope of the governmental investigations was also broadened to include beneficiaries of The Swiss Civil Fund. The initial charges formulated by Lázár and his lieutenants referred to irregularities in the distribution mechanisms of the grants, but as time passed, these charges were gradually increased, to also include, among others, embezzlement and illicit banking.
The blacklisted NGOs and many media outlets agree that the assault on what should be an independent Hungarian civil society is, in fact, motivated by the political interests of Fidesz, the current majority party in the Hungarian Parliament. In the words of philosopher Gáspár Miklós Tamás, these emancipatory associations represent the regime’s ‘Real opposition’, hence the attempt of the Hungarian government to dismantle them. With the complete political bankruptcy of left-leaning parties, Hungarian civil society, the autonomous NGOs committed to the ideals of a just and free society were the most effective actors to challenge the increasingly authoritarian, anti-egalitarian, chauvinistic and restrictive policies that the Conservative government has enacted. Although their societal embeddedness and mediatic reach is far inferior to that of the power of the Hungarian state apparatus, commanded primarily by the Cabinet, their remarkable capacity to articulate coherent alternative discourses and policies has forced Fidesz to make minor concessions in the past.
As this piece was going to press, The National Tax and Customs Administration was revoking the tax identification numbers of several NGOs, thus rendering them unable to carry on with any planned projects. As it stands, Hungarian civil society is currently fighting for its survival, and is struggling profoundly to preserve the hope for a polity based on the principles of freedom, justice and solidarity.
Szilárd István Pap is a PhD student in Social Anthropology and a member of the editorial board of the New Left blog, Kettős Mérce.
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