Lawmaker Barna Pál Zsigmond said a report by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) on NGOs included “a political attack” against Hungary instead of an objective analysis of the country’s legal system.
Following PACE’s plenary session, Zsigmond told MTI that Hungary’s law on NGOs “played a central role” in the report on restrictions affecting NGOs in member states approved on Wednesday.
Zsigmond said that none of those involved in preparing the report had visited Hungary to personally assess the situation. He said that the rapporteurs had formed an opinion on the situation of NGOs in Hungary without consulting any NGOs other than those linked to US financier George Soros, whom he accused of financing NGOs in order to achieve his goals.
“When criticism is voiced against Hungary, it is always based on the opinions of the few dozen NGOs supported by Soros’s Open Society Foundations out of some 60,000 NGOs operating in the country and it is their views that are considered unbiased,” Zsigmond said.
Hungary passed legislation in 2017 which stipulates that NGOs receiving support from abroad above a certain amount must meet certain requirements for registration, reporting and transparency.
Photo credit: Mandiner