FILE PHOTO: Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban speaks during a conference on the country's presidency of the Council of the EU in Budapest, Hungary January 20, 2025. REUTERS/Marton Monus/File Photo
BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Hungary will take steps to ensure that all aid funding coming from the United States to NGOs and media critical of the government would be revealed, Prime Minister Viktor Orban told state radio on Friday, referring to the USAID programmes.
Orban, an ally of President Donald Trump, said the moment has come to "eliminate these foreign networks" now that Trump's administration is considering merging the U.S. international aid agency (USAID) into the State Department in a major revamp that would align its spending with Trump's "America First" policy.
"In America we would call them agents, as they do not serve their own country but accept money from another power...We don't call them agents...but these are people and organisations paid from abroad whose job is to overthrow the Hungarian government," Orban said.
The Hungarian nationalist leader, who faces an election in early 2026, said the recipients of foreign funds must face "legal consequences" and must be squeezed out as they pose a threat to Hungarian sovereignty.
Orban, who has been in power since 2010, passed a law in late 2023 that set up an authority, the Sovereignty Protection Office, to explore and monitor risks of what it called political interference.
The law, which has been criticised by the European Union, the United States and several international organisations, bans foreign financing for parties or groups running for election and carries punishments of up to three years in prison.
The European Commission launched an infringement procedure over the law in February 2024, citing its potential to undermine the union's democratic values and fundamental rights.
(Reporting by Krisztina Than and Anita Komuves; Editing by Toby Chopra)
