Interview with Thibaud Gibelin, a Hungarian political scientist and visiting lecturer at the Mathias Corvinus Collegium.
Interview with Thibaud Gibelin, a Hungarian political scientist and visiting lecturer at the Mathias Corvinus Collegium.
By Tolga Dişçi
On May 13, Hungary’s ruling Fidesz party submitted a bill to parliament titled the “Transparency in Public Life”. The bill foresees audits of NGOs that receive more than €25,000 in foreign funding and allows for heavy fines if deemed necessary. The Hungarian government argues that this measure is necessary to “protect national sovereignty.”
The bill has once again sparked tensions between Hungary and Brussels. The European Commission has demanded that the bill be withdrawn.
Thibaud Gibelin, a Hungarian political scientist and visiting lecturer at the Mathias Corvinus Collegium, shared his views on the bill, its objectives, and the renewed clash with the EU in an interview with Tolga Dişçi from “Aydınlık Europe”, the European supplement of Türkiye’s Aydınlık newspaper.
“Transparency in public life”
What does the Hungarian government aim with this draft law?
The bill tabled in Parliament on May 13, 2025, aims to protect national sovereignty by ensuring “transparency in public life”. This text gives the Office for the Protection of Sovereignty (created in 2023) extensive powers to monitor and even sanction the activities of foreign-funded entities (NGOs, media, political parties, academic establishments). The Hungarian government’s approach can be summed up as follows: democracy rests on national foundations, and if foreign actors interfere in the country’s political life, citizens must be informed and, if necessary, protected. The government asserts that these entities represent a threat to the constitutional order, insofar as they attack the core values asserted in the preamble to the Basic Law. To curb this risk of interference, the bill stipulates that any organization receiving more than 10 million Hungarian forints (around 25,600 euros) from abroad could be subject to investigations and administrative sanctions, including fines of up to 25 times the amount of funds received.
Shock strategy
Why does the Commission care so much about this law?
The European Commission is at the forefront of EU federalization. This is achieved by aligning member states with standards perceived as urgent and necessary. It was budgetary stability in 2012, the distribution of migrants by quotas in 2015, but also the unification of the energy market, gender ideology in the name of “equality” and now the militarization of the economy with a view to a confrontation with Russia. It’s the same “shock strategy” applied to various crises. The Hungarian law allows the Hungarian democratic arena to maintain its integrity in the face of foreign influence, and to avoid the stifling effect that wage-earning activists intend to impose in the various countries of Europe.
For its part, the European Commission sees this law as a direct threat to the founding principles of the EU, notably freedom of expression, freedom of association and the right to an independent civil society. On May 21, 2025, the Commission officially asked Hungary to withdraw the text, pointing to a potential violation of Article 2 of the Treaty on European Union (TEU). So there’s a dialogue of the deaf between two very different perceptions of reality. This is not just a debate: Hungary has already been deprived of 18 billion euros in European funds since December 2022, due to alleged violations of the rule of law. This punitive policy aggravates the quarrel and indicates that the financial strangulation of a member state is part of the federalists’ strategy to bring a nation to its knees.
Do Brussels bureaucrats have relations with NGOs acting across Europe? Will they be harmed by this law?
Yes, many European NGOs receive funding from the European Commission under programs for “democracy”, “the environment”, “human rights” or “the rule of law”. These themes enable the dominant ideology in Brussels to be disseminated. In Hungary, such NGOs would be directly affected by the law. But are they still NGOs insofar as Brussels claims to play the role of a state with the European Commission as its government? The law requires all foreign funding to be declared, on pain of sanctions. The law also prohibits certain political activities, likening them to “foreign agents”. NGOs such as Transparency International Hungary, Amnesty International and the Ökotárs Foundation, already targeted by audits, could find their operations paralyzed.
USAID funds
USAID funds are also among the important justifications of the draft law. What impact do you think USAID funds have had on Hungarian politics so far?
The drive for greater transparency in public life has been fueled by revelations from Elon Musk’s “Department for Government Effectiveness” (DOGE): USAID (US Agency for International Development) was funding numerous entities around the world, including Hungary, to serve the interests of Washington’s Deep State. Between 2020 and 2024, USAID invested around $20 million in Hungary to support local NGOs, independent media and civic initiatives. This funding was officially intended to strengthen electoral transparency, the fight against corruption and civic education. The Hungarian government claims that these funds were used to favor opposition parties and finance campaigns against Fidesz policies. This revelation is so serious that Viktor Orbán has appointed a government commissioner (MEP Andras Laszlo) to investigate USAID’s operations in Hungary. In February 2025, USAID announced the closure of its Hungarian program, accused by the authorities of “political subversion”. The closure was celebrated by the government as a victory against “foreign interference”, but denounced by opponents as a weakening of civil society and independent media.
18 billion euros in blocked funds
26 members of the European Parliament have called for Hungary to stop receiving EU funds. There is also a possibility that the European Court of Justice will annul the law together with the law on the Office of Sovereignty. How should Hungary respond to such moves against its national sovereignty?
On May 22, 2025, a group of 26 MEPs sent a letter to the European Commission calling for the immediate suspension of all funding to Hungary, denouncing an authoritarian drift. The letter points out that Hungary has already been subject to financial sanctions since 2022, totaling some 18 billion euros in blocked funds. The European Parliament is the institution most vehemently opposed to national sovereignty, primarily because it claims to be imposing a European democracy, but also because some of its elected representatives are keen to put on a show. Budapest takes such steps seriously because they serve as a prelude to effective measures. For the past fifteen years, laws passed in Hungary have been criticized, and a dialogue has been established to find a modus vivendi. This is the function of the Venice Commission, which has acted as mediator between Brussels and Budapest on several occasions. Hungarian politics resembles the technique of the hussars, capable of great mobility and strategic withdrawal.
Polarized society
It is reflected in the media that there are some public concerns about the law. Does the Hungarian government develop a policy to address these concerns?
Hungarian society is highly polarized, either in favor of the government or against it. The voices speaking out against this law belong to the second camp, and nothing in Fidesz’s achievements finds favor in their eyes. By way of comparison, the European Commission acknowledged this week that Hungarian legislation on the long-criticized “Stop Soros” package is recognized as compliant with European law.
The challenge facing the Hungarian government lies elsewhere: precisely in the opinion of the undecided or the indifferent, who must be spared and not feel infantilized by the protective rhetoric of public power. The Hungarian government defines itself as a political force of national resistance to the liberticidal European federalism, of which the liberal opposition is the instrument. The latter accuses Fidesz of being a hegemonic party out of touch with popular aspirations. The outcome of the elections next April will show which side has the majority among the population.