By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – Hungary’s ruling party has delayed a planned vote on Russian-style legislation that would fine and potentially ban foreign-funded media and other non-governmental organizations (NGOs) deemed a “threat” to Hungarian sovereignty and culture.
Wednesday’s announced decision followed weeks of protests, including Tuesday in Budapest and the European Union’s threat to remove Hungary’s voting rights through a so-called Article 7 procedure.
Additionally, 90 editors-in-chief and publishers from across Europe, including newspapers The Guardian in Britain, Libération in France, and Gazeta Wyborcza in Poland, urged the EU to take action.
They expressed concern about the so-called “Transparency Law” that critics compared to similar “foreign agent” legislation in autocratically ruled Russia.
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s right-wing nationalist party, Fidesz, introduced a law last month allowing the government to monitor, penalize, and potentially ban organizations that receive foreign funding, including donations or EU grants.
Any organization could be targeted if it was deemed to “threaten the sovereignty of Hungary by using foreign funding to influence public life.”
BROAD VIEW
Experts say the law takes a broad view of what constitutes a threat, describing it as acts undermining Hungary’s constitutional identity or Christian culture or challenging the primacy of marriage, the family, and biological sexes.
Zoltán Kovács, a spokesperson for the Hungarian government, had said the bill had been introduced amid worries that foreign-funded organizations, primarily from the U.S. and Brussels, were shaping the country’s political discourse.
The parliamentary vote on it had been expected to take place in mid-June. Despite critics likening the legislation to Russia’s “foreign agent” law, it was forecast to be passed by parliament as Fidesz holds a two-thirds majority.
But on Wednesday, Fidesz’ parliamentary party leader, Mâté Kocsis, told local media that the vote would be postponed until autumn as the government had received several suggestions regarding the law. “We are united in our intentions, but there is still debate about the means,” he added on social media.
Sources said several key ministers oppose the law, fearing a public backlash and EU retaliation via suspending Hungary’s voting rights.
“There seems to be a division between technocrats, moderates, and hardliners,” noted Hungarian investigative journalist Szabolcs Panyi.
CRACKDOWN FEARED
Orbáb, in power since 2010, pledged in March to crack down on foreign funding of independent media, opposition politicians, and NGOs, whom he described as bugs needing a spring cleaning.
Critics view the measures as part of a move to strengthen his position ahead of the 2026 elections when he faces an unprecedented challenge from a new opposition party, the Tisza, named after Hungary’s second-largest river.
Tisza leader Péter Magyar, a former Fidesz insider, said the postponement of the law would enable the government to “squeeze even more” out of the proposed bill and “further divert attention from … the livelihood and housing crisis, Orbán’s galloping inflation and the destruction of education.”
Rights activists celebrated the delay, with Amnesty International calling it a “huge joint success.”
“Of course, we can only rest easy once this unlawful bill has been scrapped for good,” the group said on social media. “Unfortunately, one thing is certain: the government will not give up its attempts to silence independent voices, as has been its goal since 2010.”
The government denies these allegations.
Copyright 1999-2025 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
Latest News from Worthy News
Israel’s political crisis deepened this week as former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett renewed demands for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to resign over what critics have dubbed the “Qatargate” affair—claims that Netanyahu’s office and allies firmly reject as a manufactured scandal already dismissed by the courts.
The U.S. economy grew at a robust 4.3% annual rate in the third quarter, marking its fastest expansion in two years, according to new data released Tuesday by the U.S. Commerce Department.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that President Donald Trump can’t use National Guard troops in Chicago to help federal immigration enforcement, in another blow to the president’s push for federalization nationwide.
Libya’s Prime Minister Abdul-Hamid Dbeibah said late Tuesday that the country has suffered a “great loss” after its military chief was confirmed among eight people killed in a private plane crash shortly after takeoff from Turkey’s capital, Ankara.
The Netherlands remained on edge Tuesday after a car drove into a crowd of people waiting to watch a Christmas parade in the eastern Dutch town of Nunspeet, injuring numerous people at a time when Europe has faced several threats against holiday events.
Officials say massive Russian drone and missile strikes on Ukraine have killed at least three people, including a four-year-old child, while cutting power to several regions just two days before Christmas, as the country faces bitter winter cold.
The remaining 130 schoolchildren and staff abducted by gunmen from a Catholic school in Nigeria last month — one of the largest mass kidnappings in the country’s history — have been freed, officials confirmed.