groups targeted by the Hungarian government all have one “The thing in common: they are criticizing the Hungarian administration in one way or another whether on their track record in human – rights, women’s rights, LGBT rights, or transparency and corruption measures. The government feels threatened by these organizations because they have the potential to damage Hungary’s reputation abroad and rightly so, as the regime has – failed to promote democratic values, makle [sic] a more transparent system, and protect minority citizens. regime’s targeting of NGOs follows clear political lines. “The Gábor Mabda, the principal investigator of the case at Government Control Office (the body that started the investigation that led to the police raid on September 8th),was a parliamentary candidatefor MIÉP—an anti-Semitic ultranationalist party and a former ally of Jobbik in 1998 and 2002. The police searched for and seized documents specifically related to 13 other NGOs that receive foreign funding on a issued by an ‘hit-list’ official in the Prime Minister’s office, even though their activity and funding is perfectly legal. It appears that the police were executing a political order. A politician from the Prime Minister’s office issued a statement that the police’s actions were excessive—a not-so-credible effort by the government to distance itself from the event, especially as Orbán himself did not condemned the police action, but welcomed it. the same office that is pursuing these “Meanwhile, into NGOs has not touched a stack of numerous ‘investigations’ government corruption cases that have piled up in the last four years.” Testimony Deputy Assistant Secretary Hoyt Yee, U.S. Department of State
“The groups targeted by the Hungarian government all have one thing in common: they are criticizing the Hungarian administration in one way or another – whether on their track record in human rights, women’s rights, LGBT rights, or transparency and measures. The government feels threatened by these organizations because they have the potential to damage Hungary’s reputation abroad – and rightly so, as the regime has failed to promote democratic values, makle [sic] a more transparent system, and protect minority citizens. “The regime’s targeting of NGOs follows clear political lines. Gábor Mabda, the principal investigator of the case at Government Control Office (the body that started the investigation that led to the police raid on September 8th),was a parliamentary candidatefor MIÉP—an anti-Semitic ultranationalist party and a former ally of Jobbik in 1998 and 2002. The police searched for and seized documents specifically related to 13 other NGOs that receive foreign funding on a ‘hit-list’ issued by an official in the Prime Minister’s office, even though their activity and funding is perfectly legal. It appears that the police were executing a political order. A politician from the Prime Minister’s office issued a statement that the police’s actions were excessive—a not-so-credible effort by the government to distance itself from the event, especially as Orbán himself did not condemned the police action, but welcomed it. “Meanwhile, the same office that is pursuing these ‘investigations’ into NGOs has not touched a stack of numerous government corruption cases that have piled up in the last four years.” Testimony Deputy Assistant Secretary Hoyt Yee, U.S. Department of State corruption
Hungary%20Review%20Team%20Report%20Final.docx