(Bloomberg) — Hungary plans to set up a powerful new agency to detect “foreign” influences in the increasingly inward-looking European Union nation under Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s more than decade-old rule.
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Hungary will create a new Sovereignty Protection Agency with ample budgetary and institutional support, including from the intelligence services, to identify purported foreign efforts to influence politics, according to a bill filed by Orban’s ruling party late Tuesday. Orban will pick the agency’s chief.
The bill, which is all but certain to be approved as Orban’s lawmakers wield a supermajority in the legislature, will also impose a prison term of up to three years on politicians that accept foreign funds in elections. It will also allow authorities to shutter civil groups deemed to run afoul of the new regulations.
The legislation was filed as the European Union considers whether to unlock some of the more than $30 billion in funding earmarked for Hungary, suspended last year on accusations over the erosion of the rule of law and graft concerns. Last week, Orban — a staunch supporter of former US President Donald Trump — said his aim was to push back against what he sees as “liberal hegemony” in Europe.
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While officials from Orban’s ruling party earlier said that the bill would also seek to target foreign funding of media, the bill doesn’t explicitly mention it. Some of Hungary’s dwindling number of independent outlets rely on funding from abroad to stay operational, while Orban’s cabinet and state companies channel vast funds to a pro-government media juggernaut spanning print to television and digital outlets.
The legislation’s effect is set to be chilling nonetheless as civil groups and those not explicitly named in the law begin to assess just how broadly the new agency may interpret its remit to defend what the five-term Orban calls Hungary’s sovereignty.
(Updates with details throughout.)
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