More on government vs watchdog NGOs
January 21st, 2017An independent conservative author sees no justifiable reason for the government to lash out against NGOs subsidised by liberal western sources. A pro-government analyst, on the other hand believes that foreign interests in Hungarian politics must be made visible.
Mandiner ’s star commentator András Stumpf warns that it is the citizen’s constitutional right to express their views on politics and NGOs can therefore not be condemned for doing just that. Nor does he understand why the government is pondering striking a blow against them by requiring their executives to submit annual asset declarations, as these are obviously not wealthy people.
On his Polgárportál, political philosopher Ervin Nagy thinks the left-wing opposition badly needs the NGOs subsidised by Hungarian-American billionaire George Soros because the Socialist Party is heavily indebted and will thus face huge difficulties in financing its electoral campaign. Financial help from foreign sources, on the other hand, may come with foreign political influence. Therefore Nagy believes it is only too fair to lay the resources of the given NGOs in the open in order to prevent foreign interest centres from ‘buying Hungarian political actors’.