When Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán made his watershed speech at Baile Tusnad two weeks ago the international press understandably focused on his pledge to introduce an “illiberal democracy” in Hungary. Generally overlooked was Orbán’s extraordinary claim that a “committee that deals with constant monitoring, recording and publishing foreign attempts to gain influence” had been formed so that Orbán and his followers “will know who the characters behind the masks are”.
However, according to information given to the Budapest Beacon by the Prime Minister’s Office, no such committee exists. Orbán was evidently referring to the ad hoc Committee to Uncover Hungarian Connections to the Wiretapping Scandal Affecting Several European States and Attempts by Foreigners to Gain Influence, which was established in December in the wake of Edward Snowden’s US National Security Agency surveillance revelations.
The committee was chaired by Máté Kocsis of Fidesz and included as members Zsolt Csampa and Gergely Gulyás (both Fidesz), Tamás Básthy (KDNP), Imre Iváncsik (MSZP), Ádám Mirkóczki (Jobbik), Lajos Mile (LMP) and independent Lajos Pősze.
Mirkóczki told the Budapest Beacon that he did not remember this examination committee ever dealing with the role of different NGOs or Norway Civil Grant recipients during its work.
According to Mirkóczki, even though the committee was supposed to collect testimonies, examine findings and produce a final executive report, none of that happened until the end of the parliamentary session. The committee was “exclusively formed as a reaction to Edward Snowden’s leaks, yet it was not fulfilling its job and was only made by Fidesz as a diversion from the topic”, he added.
Iváncsik and Kocsis both failed to answer our enquiries. The committee was suspended at the end of the 2010-14 parliamentary session without publishing any findings or reports.
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