{"id":427903,"date":"2025-05-26T19:50:13","date_gmt":"2025-05-26T17:50:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2025\/05\/26\/ungheria-commissione-stato-diritto-pride\/"},"modified":"2025-05-26T20:25:42","modified_gmt":"2025-05-26T18:25:42","slug":"eu-ready-for-clash-with-hungary-over-russian-law-silencing-dissidents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2025\/05\/26\/eu-ready-for-clash-with-hungary-over-russian-law-silencing-dissidents\/","title":{"rendered":"EU ready for clash with Hungary over ‘Russian law’ silencing dissidents"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels – The EU is waiting for Hungary<\/strong>. This is the message that the Commission is sending to the mitteleuropean country, which is being watched for violations of the rule of law<\/strong>. It is not so much the restrictions on civil rights<\/strong>\u2014against which Prime Minister Viktor Orb\u00e1n<\/strong> is waging a crusade (see Budapest Pride<\/a><\/strong>)\u2014that are of greatest concern to the EU executive, but the parliamentary process of a law that, if adopted, will allow the government to silence<\/strong> foreign-funded organisations and entities<\/strong>. Just as happens in the Russia of Vladimir Putin<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

In Brussels, the redde rationem<\/i> (showdown) with Hungary seems to be getting closer and closer. The Berlaymont is asking the government in Budapest to “withdraw the draft law on transparency in public life<\/strong>“, as reiterated again today (26 May) by Commission spokesmen. “We are closely following developments,” they say, stressing that if the law is adopted, “there would be a serious breach of European principles and laws”<\/strong>. They guarantee that, in case of final approval by the Magyar Parliament,\u00a0the College “will not hesitate to take the necessary decisions.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

So worrying for the twelve-star executive is the draft law<\/strong> entitled ‘transparency in public life<\/strong>‘, tabled a couple of weeks ago by Fidesz<\/i>, the party of the Prime Minister Viktor Orb\u00e1n, at the National Assembly in Budapest. The measure would give the government the authority to freeze funding from abroad for NGOs, media, and other entities<\/strong> that it deems to be\u00a0threats to national sovereignty<\/strong>, based on ‘blacklists<\/strong>‘ compiled by the controversial Office for the Protection of Sovereignty<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"Ursula<\/a>European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen (photo: Aurore Martignoni\/European Commission)<\/h6>\n

The fear in Brussels is that the Budapest Parliament is about to adopt a measure that somewhat too closely resembles a\u00a0law in force in Vladimir Putin’s<\/strong> Russia<\/strong>, which officially targets<\/strong> so-called ‘foreign agents’ but in fact gags dissent against the tsar’s regime<\/strong> by putting any independent countervailing power out of play.<\/p>\n

“The Commission attaches great importance to civil society and is committed to protecting the right of association<\/strong>,” the spokesmen emphasise, recalling that Hungary has already been referred to the EU Court of Justice (CJEU)<\/strong> last year precisely “because\u00a0the Sovereignty Office and its investigations are\u00a0in breach of EU law<\/strong><\/a>“. The head-on clash seems inevitable, as the Magyar government does not seem willing to back down<\/strong>, and the EU Parliament is lobbying\u00a0Ursula von der Leyen<\/strong> so that she will ask the Court for interim<\/strong> urgent measures<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The other track on which the temperature of the clash between the EU and Hungary is currently being measured is\u00a0the\u00a0one\u00a0related<\/a><\/span>\u00a0<\/a>to\u00a0<\/a>the<\/span>\u00a0announced cancellation of the Budapest Pride<\/strong>, although here Brussels’ approach is colder. “It is the national authorities that decide on rallies and demonstrations<\/strong>,” they merely comment from the Berlaymont. So, if the government wants to ban them, go ahead. The Pride organisers can apply for authorisation from the municipality<\/strong> no more than a month in advance: since the march is scheduled for 28 June, the next few hours, the story will start to unfold<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

A procedure ex <\/i>Article 7 of the Treaty<\/strong> has been active against Orb\u00e1n’s Hungary since 2018, at the initiative of the EU Parliament, for alleged violation of EU law, fundamental EU values and the rule of law. And it is precisely on this procedure that the General Affairs Council<\/strong> will hold the eighth hearing of the Magyar government<\/strong> tomorrow (27 May), whose representatives will be questioned by the ministers of the Twenty-Seven and the Commission to obtain updated information on the state of play, although no particular breakthrough<\/strong> is to be expected.<\/p>\n

.<\/p>\n

\"pride<\/a>
Archive photo via iStock<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In recent times, however, the measure against the strongman of Budapest seems to have been bridged across the board.\u00a0Members of the\u00a0Strasbourg hemicycle<\/strong>\u00a0have always been the most vocal critics of the authoritarian Hungarian leader: last month, a\u00a0monitoring mission\u00a0<\/strong>visited the Hungarian capital\u00a0<\/a>to assess the situation on the ground, while last week, a group of 26 MEPs called on the Commission\u00a0to\u00a0freeze all EU funds destined for Hungary immediately<\/strong><\/span>.<\/span>\u00a0Currently, there are around \u20ac18 billion<\/strong> blocked under different credit lines, from cohesion funds to NRP payments.<\/p>\n

Now, also the list of the other Member States fed up with Orb\u00e1n<\/strong>‘s constant\u00a0obstructionism\u00a0is<\/a><\/span>\u00a0growing<\/a>, especially (but not only) with respect to the Ukraine dossier. But, EU sources say, the necessary level of political consensus<\/strong> to proceed to a vote in the Council has not yet been reached: to activate the so-called ‘preventive arm’ of Article 7 there is a four-fifths threshold, i.e. 22 member states out of 27, but at the moment only 19 would agree.<\/p>\n

The latest in chronological order to point the finger at the Kremlin’s Trojan horses<\/strong>\u2014the Hungarian Prime Minister and his Slovak counterpart,\u00a0Robert Fico<\/strong>\u2014was the German Chancellor,\u00a0Friedrich Merz<\/strong>, reversing Berlin’s traditional coldness about the central European country’s violations. The leader of the CDU noted today that “if we continue on this path we will not be able to avoid a conflict<\/strong>“\u00a0<\/strong>(legal, of course) with Budapest and Bratislava, going so far as to suggest the possibility of “withdrawing European funds from them”<\/strong>, as demanded by MEPs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Commission is threatening legal action against the Budapest government if the Hungarian parliament definitively adopts a measure it deems liberticidal. But it remains lukewarm on the capital’s Pride, which is due to be held next month and which Viktor Orb\u00e1n wants to ban<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7876,"featured_media":427899,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25681],"tags":[31257,25833,31330,27047,26761,26302,31331,30669],"class_list":["post-427903","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-budapest-pride-en","tag-eu-en","tag-hungary-en","tag-state-of-right-en","tag-law-transparency-hungary-en","tag-viktor-orban-en-2"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427903","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7876"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=427903"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427903\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":427914,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427903\/revisions\/427914"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/427899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=427903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=427903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=427903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}