Hungarian legislators adopt new law to protect sovereignty

What is at risk?

Hungarian MPs adopted a bill on the 'protection of national sovereignty' with 141 votes in favour and 50 against. The ruling Fidesz-KDNP coalition was supported by the far-right Mi Hazánk (Our Homeland) party too.

Hungary's sovereignty is impaired - and it also carries a heightened national security risk - if political power gets into the hands of persons and organisations who and which are dependent on any foreign power, organisation or person,

the bill says.

The new law will create the 'Office for the Defence of Sovereignty' that will be "an autonomous public administration body carrying out analytical, evaluative, proposing and investigative activities."

Its President will be appointed on a proposal from the Prime Minister (by 1 January 2024) by the President of the Republic (by 1 February 2024) for a term of six years. The head of the Office will be entitled to the same immunities as Members of Parliament. The monthly salary of the President will be 80% of the salary of the Governor of the Central Bank.

Following a Fidesz-KDNP off-site parliamentary group meeting, Fidesz' group leader Máté Kocsis said that he believed that Hungary's sovereignty was under attack in the areas of culture, economy and politics. He then announced that the work of "foreign-funded journalists, pseudo-NGOs and dollar-funded politicians" would be curtailed by new rules as early as this autumn.

The new legislation also amends the law on the rules of taxation, stating that

THE TAX AUTHORITY SHALL, UPON REQUEST, INFORM THE SOVEREIGNTY PROTECTION OFFICE OF TaX SECRETS IF THE INFORMATION IS NECESSARY FOR THE PERFORMANCE OF ITS DUTIES AS DEFINED BY LAW.

This brings the SPO into the category of organisations such as courts, prosecutors, investigative authorities, the State Audit Office or the secret services. The work of the office is supported by the National Information Centre, the secret service assigned to Antal Rogán.

It would be included in the Criminal Code that it is a criminal offence to accept foreign funding as a member, representative or officer of a candidate organisation standing for election. After the amendment, this would be punishable by imprisonment of up to three years.

Read more details about the new office's duties, including "the protection of constitutional identity" at the link below.

Warnings

More than 100 NGOs have protested against the proposed legislation. According to them, the bill is deliberately vague, and the new office may consider any public expression as serving foreign interests, thus endangering Hungary's sovereignty.

Dunja Mijatović, Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, warned earlier that the new office "poses a significant risk to human rights and should be abandoned." If adopted, the new law, she said,

will provide the executive with even more opportunity to silence and stigmatise independent voices and opponents.

She said the office would have

unlimited authority to request sensitive data and private information from anyone, without oversight and without any legal remedy.

"The draft package of laws submitted to Parliament, jointly with a parallel proposal by the Government to insert a reference to the new Office into the Fundamental Law, is

so vague that the invasive scrutiny of the proposed Office could be weaponised against anybody who may be considered an adversary due, for instance, to ‘activities aimed at influencing democratic debate’,

she added.

(It is important that the Council of Europe is not an EU body, not to be confused with the European Council, the body of Heads of State and Government.)

U.S. Ambassador to Hungary David Pressman compared the then proposed legislation to Moscow's foreign agent law.

He reminded that the government proposes to create a new domestic security agency,

armed with unfettered and unchecked investigative powers – including tapping the nation’s intelligence services, issuing subpoenas, demanding documents from and depositions of anyone involved in “democratic debate,” all without judicial oversight, it is alarming.

This authority, he added, would have a mandate with a "breath-taking" breadth.

"As written, it has the ability to reach each of your companies and each of your employees should you be deemed to be involved in “advocacy activities” or “democratic debate.”  Just as it reaches independent media organizations and civil society organizations."

This draft law makes Moscow’s foreign agent law look mild and meek.

Attack against press freedom

"We are united in our view that the law entitled "On the Protection of National Sovereignty" should not be corrected in its details, but should be fundamentally rejected. It does not serve the information security of society, on the contrary: it threatens free media and democratic debate in general, and aims to make it impossible," the editors in chief of ten independent media outlets have written in a joint statement.

"Ostensibly lawful, the agency can in fact pin down and stigmatise the targeted individuals and organisations with complete arbitrariness. It does not even need sanctions, as the damage caused by the investigations carried without hindrance and legal guarantees can be enough in itself to destroy the targeted," they argue.

The law makes it clear: in Hungary today, those in power are suspicious of anyone who takes part in democratic debate or even just informs the public.

They claim it's a recurring "deliberate lie" that independent media outlets obtaining and sharing information belonging in the public domain are serving foreign interests. This is an attack not only against these editorials but also against those that read such articles and, horrible dictu, financially support the operation of these sites.

"The operation of independent editorial offices, including their funding, is open and transparent. There are no hidden funds or subsidies."

The editors in chief wrote a list of the reasons why they believe the new Office is unlawful. These chime together with previous criticism (see above):

• The Office may open an investigation against any person or organisation on the basis of its own decision without providing any reason.
• The wording of the law, which is deliberately vague, allows such an investigation to be launched against anyone who is active in public life in the broadest sense.
• The organisations and persons investigated, including all staff of the organisations, irrespective of their job title, are obliged to provide all information to the Office.
• The same applies to anyone else who, although not the subject of the investigation, may be involved in the case.
• The Office can also request information from any public or other body about anyone and anything without restriction.
• The law precludes any legal remedy against the Office's actions, and it is outside the jurisdiction of any legal remedy forum, including the courts. Persons and organisations under investigation have nowhere to turn if the office violates their rights, the investigation is considered unjustified, conducted in bad faith or its results are unfounded.

EU may quash sovereignty protection law in the end

According to sources of local news portal hvg.hu, during the codification of the newly submitted bill, the question of what sovereignty should or can be defined as in the case of a country that has itself given up part of its rights by joining the EU and NATO has caused a minor debate.

More specific problems have also occurred, namely the threshold above which accepting foreign funding can constitute "treason".

There was a similar dilemma in 2017, when the law labelling NGOs as "foreign-funded" set the limit at HUF 7.2 million per year. This was ruled illegal by the European Court of Justice in 2020, and the parliament repealed it, leaving it with no role other than a political circus.

The 'Stop Soros' law package adopted in 2018 was based on similar principles. It has also met a similar fate, at least as the European Court of Justice ruled in 2021 that it is incompatible with EU law - for example, because of restrictions on the rights of asylum seekers or the criminalisation of the activities of NGOs.

HVG pointed out that the new package of laws also shows that the "protection of sovereignty" will not only be the political framework for the new national consultation to be launched soon, but also the main campaign message for the merged European Parliament and local elections next June (with Hungary's economic, cultural and political sovereignty allegedly under attack, mainly from Brussels.) It is nothing new, however, in a sense that in his political theatre Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has been fighting - mostly imaginary - enemies for decades.

Of course, sovereignty is protected not only by the recent package of laws, but also by the recent national consultation. Its 11 questions include Brussels, Ukraine, migrant ghettos, the dollar left and the child protection act, although the government distorts reality on almost every issue. Brussels has already criticised it for its untruthful content.

Cover photo: Getty Images