{"id":93383,"date":"2025-10-02T14:48:59","date_gmt":"2025-10-02T19:48:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dejusticia.org\/?p=93383"},"modified":"2025-12-19T10:55:40","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T15:55:40","slug":"the-hungarian-case-and-its-anti-ngo-laws","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/develop.dejusticia.org\/en\/the-hungarian-case-and-its-anti-ngo-laws\/","title":{"rendered":"The Hungarian Case and its Anti-NGO Laws"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you drop a frog into boiling water, it will jump out immediately. But if you slowly increase the temperature, it will stay until its too late. That\u2019s how civic space disappears: not with a sudden crackdown, but through a gradual development of legal pressure that erodes civic activity, until there is no room left.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Orb\u00e1ns Authoritarian shift\u00a0<\/b><\/h2>\n

Since returning to power in 2010, Viktor Orb\u00e1n has systematically dismantled Hungary\u2019s democratic institutions. Backed by a constitutional supermajority his party \u2013 Fidesz \u2013 has amended the Constitution <\/span>fifteen times<\/span><\/a>, and overhauled the country\u2019s legal order. Media outlets have been brought under state influence, education has been politicised, and the judiciary co-opted.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

One of the most sustained targets is civic space. Orb\u00e1n\u2019s government has invoked transparency and national sovereignty to justify a series of laws designed to suffocate independent civil society.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

LexNGO and the Beginning of Legal Repression<\/b><\/h2>\n

In 2017, Hungary passed the Law on the Transparency of Organisations Receiving Foreign Funds – <\/span>LexNGO 2017<\/span><\/a> \u2013\u00a0 marking the first of series of laws used to label independent groups as foreign agents. It required organisations receiving over<\/span> HUF 7.2 million annually<\/span><\/a> (around 24,000 euros) from abroad, to register and publicly label themselves as “foreign funded\u201d, disclosing donors.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The law disproportionately affected CSOs critical of the state and triggered infringement proceedings from the European Commission.\u00a0In 2020, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled that<\/span> LexNGO 2017 breached European Union (EU) law<\/span><\/a> on two grounds. It violated the free movement of capital under <\/span>Article 63 TFEU<\/span><\/a> by deterring cross-boarder donations, and it infringed upon the rights of <\/span>freedom of association<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>private life<\/span><\/a>, by imposing undue interference on the operation of independent organisations.\u00a0The court recognised transparency as a legitimate justification but found Hungary\u2019s measures neither necessary nor proportionate. The CJEU called for the laws repeal.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Hungary repealed the law after a year\u2019s delay but replaced it with <\/span>LexNGO 2021<\/span><\/a>. LexNGO 2021 empowers the State Audit Office to inspect NGOs with annual budgets exceeding HUF 20 million (around 53000 euros). Despite being rebranded, it is operationally similar to its predecessor, drawing <\/span>similar criticism<\/span><\/a> for discriminatory application and potential breaches of EU law. LexNGO 2021 remains in force despite ongoing constitutional complaints.<\/span><\/p>\n

The same tactic followed the <\/span>Stop Soros<\/span><\/a> legislation, which criminalised assistance to asylum seekers. The CJEU found it <\/span>incompatible with EU law<\/span><\/a>, but Hungary made only minor changes and left the core provisions in place.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In both cases, the Hungarian government has delayed, rebranded, or diluted the laws \u2013 but never fully complied with the CJEU, undermining the authority of the European legal order.<\/span><\/p>\n

Escalation: \u2018Operation Starve and Strangle\u2019<\/b><\/h2>\n

In 2023, the government went further. <\/span>The Act on the Protection of National Sovereignty<\/span><\/a> established an investigative body with sweeping powers and criminalised the use of foreign funds for political purposes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Then, earlier this year, Fidesz proposed the new <\/span>Act on Transparency and Public Life<\/span><\/a>, widely seen as the most aggressive attack on independent civil society yet. At the heart of the <\/span>proposal<\/span><\/a> is a discretionary power granted to the Sovereignty Protection Office (SPO) to list any organisation as \u201cunder foreign influence\u201d. If an organisation is listed:<\/span><\/p>\n