[YAHOO] Hungarian NGOs have long felt the heat under strongman Prime Minister Viktor Orban -- but they now fear that, emboldened by Donald Trump...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States...
's victory, the right-wing premier will turn the screws even tighter.
First in line may be groups backed by Hungarian-born billionaire financier George Soros, whose foundation once funded the Oxford studies of a young Orban more than 25 years ago.
Last week the deputy head of Orban's ruling party Fidesz, in power since 2010, said that non-governmental organizations should be "cleaned out of here".
Szilard Nemeth said that criticism of government policies by "fake" civil organizations set up to "influence politics" by Soros and others was "impermissible".
The remarks triggered alarm among beleaguered NGOs, many of which -- in the absence of a credible political opposition -- have long attacked Orban's sweeping revamp of state institutions and hardline anti-immigration stance.
"This is a new level of NGO-bashing," said Marta Pardavi, co-head of the Hungarian branch of the Helsinki Committee, a human rights
When they're defined by the state or an NGO they don't mean much...
group that provides free advice to asylum-seekers.
Nemeth name-checked the body as potential targets along with civil rights group TASZ and corruption watchdog Transparency International.
"The notion that we should be swept away like rubbish or have no right to comment on politics shows their arrogant intolerance of different views," Pardavi told AFP.
Her office, staffed by some two dozen lawyers, heaves with case files as well as reports that have slammed Orban's anti-migration policies.
She freely admits that her organization relies on foreign funding to continue operating. But "otherwise it's not possible to do human rights advocacy work in Hungary," she says.
Mirroring pressure in Russia under President Vladimir Putin
...Second and fourth President and sixth of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead..., scrutiny of foreign-funded NGOs has been cranked up since Orban was re-elected in 2014.
Dozens of groups supported by Norway were investigated by government auditors over alleged financial irregularities.
None were found, and the purge prompted US President Barack Obama
That’s just how white folks will do you....
to warn Hungary against a "clampdown" on civil society.