Máté Kocsis, the group leader of ruling Fidesz, said that protecting Hungary’s sovereignty is our constitutional obligation, under which we must face any debate.
Speaking at a conference on Monday, Kocsis called for setting up an institution to protect the country’s sovereignty “to monitor trends indicating foreign interference”. To stop such interference, the election law should be changed “to make it clear that the same rules apply to all civil organisations and their candidates, as to the political parties” he said. Financing and accounting for their spending must be the same whether it comes to civil groups or political parties, he said. Foreign funds in Hungarian politics have been increasingly present since Hungary joined the European Union and simultaneously with political globalisation, Kocsis said, but “there have been no earlier examples of foreign funds financing [leftist] political campaigns” in the country, he insisted. He called for changing the penal code to criminalise accepting foreign funds as a member or candidate of an organisation participating in an election, and to penalise such activities with up to three years imprisonment. According to Kocsis, “There is a fundamental difference between the concept of democracy in the West and in Hungary … they say things will often change and we say the will of the people must be promoted at all times.” While “in the West it is not democratic if voters support the same government for the fourth time … they say steadiness is a dictatorship and versatility is democracy.” “They have a fundamental problem with a country in which elections are won on the basis of national values and sovereignty”.