Latest news with #Russia-style
Time of India
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
EU eyes action over Hungary's planned Russia-style law
EU eyes action over Hungary's planned Russia-style law Tens of thousands of Hungarians took to the streets over the weekend after the Hungarian government tabled new legislation to monitor foreign funding for NGOs and media outlets or anyone deemed a threat to what it sees as Hungarian sovereign interest. The bill is labeled "Transparency of Public Life' and the government says it is aimed at protecting Hungary 's sovereignty from outside interference. But activists say it mimics Russia's foreign agent law and would similarly offer the Hungarian government sweeping powers to crack down on the press and critical voices in civil society. The protests are the latest cry for help from Hungarians looking at the European Union to reign in their government. Some of the protesters in front of the parliament in the Hungarian capital Budapest held a big flag of the European Union imprinted with the English word HELP. What is Hungary's new 'transparency law?' If the draft bill were to turn into law, activists say, the government could control media outlets and NGOs or even dissolve them. In December 2023, Hungary passed a national law on the "Defence of Sovereignty" and established what it called a Sovereignty Protection Office (SPO) to investigate organizations that use foreign funds to influence voters. Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like עם ביטוח רכב של 9 תחסכו כסף. המחיר הכי זול אצלנו באתר ביטוח רכב 9 לקבלת הצעה Undo With the new law, that agency will be responsible for investigating all kinds of organizations and authorized to blacklist those who receive foreign funding without prior government approval. If blacklisted, organizations will also lose access to donations through Hungary's annual 1% income tax contribution scheme, potentially pay a fine of 25 times these funds, and their owners will be made to declare their assets. Reports suggest that the country's secret services have been authorized to assist SPO in any investigations. Tineke Strik , Hungary rapporteur of the European Parliament, told DW that Hungary's transparency bill was aimed at "dissolving all organizations, all media outlets, even punishing all individuals, that criticize the government. That is exactly what the Russian law does." Russia's foreign agent law was adopted in mid-2022, in what human right organizations described as a smearing campaign to discredit legitimate Russian civic activism. "The law expands the definition of foreign agent to a point at which almost any person or entity, regardless of nationality or location, who engages in civic activism or even expresses opinions about Russian policies or officials' conduct could be designated a foreign agent, so long as the authorities claim they are under 'foreign influence,'" the NGO Human Rights Watch said. Hungary's 'transparency' bill 'authoritarian' Peter Magyar, the leader of Hungary's opposition Tisza party and the only Hungarian politician seen to be a credible challenger to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban 's 14-year grip on power, also accused the government of adopting Russian-style legislation to strip funding for activists and journalists, including through EU grants. He said it was "copying its master, [Russian President ] Vladimir Putin ." A statement signed by 300 international organizations including the human rights organization Amnesty International described the bill as an "authoritarian attempt to retain power" that "aims to silence all critical voices and to eliminate what remains of Hungarian democracy." The non-profit group Transparency International said the new bill threatened to "end civil society" and, if passed, would empower the government to "persecute with impunity." It said the law would apply to EU grants and foreign donations as small as €5 ($5.70), and that "vague language" adopted in the bill left "wide room for political misuse, threatening a broad swathe of civil society — including independent media, watchdog organizations, and ordinary citizens engaged in public life." Last year, Georgia adopted a similar law amidst much uproar at home and in Brussels. The move is suspected to have scuttled the country's chances of joining the EU. But while Georgia is an EU candidate nation, Hungary is a full-fledged member of the bloc. How can EU ensure Hungary aligns with the bloc's value system? Zsuzsanna Vegh , a program officer at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, said that theoretically the EU could move ahead with the Article 7 procedure it first initiated in 2018. The Treaty on the European Union outlines a procedure for addressing serious and persistent breaches of EU values by member states underArticle 7. It allows for the suspension of certain rights, including voting rights in the Council of the European Union, if a member is determined to be in repeated violations of the EU's fundamental principles, such as weakening rule of law, democracy and freedoms. "The EU could declare that there is indeed systematic violation of democracy and rule of law in Hungary and suspend its voting rights" in the Council of the European Union, where the bloc debates and decides its policies, Vegh said. "But that is still a political decision and it is unlikely." Some European parliamentarians have advocated that the EU slash Hungary's funding to force it to reduce corruption that has an adverse impact on the EU's financial interests. But experts say the same method could also be effective in encouraging Hungary to stick to the EU's value system. "We urge the European Commission to increase pressure on Viktor Orban's government to cease violating EU values and EU Laws by immediately suspending all EU funding for Hungary in line with the applicable legislation to protect the Union's financial interest," more than two dozen EU parliamentarians wrote in a letter to the European Commission on May 20. Vegh said that while some funds for Hungary had already been cut there was no precedent of the EU cutting all funding marked for a member state. However, Teona Lavrelashvili, a visiting fellow with the Wilfried Martens Center in Brussels, said this could be done. "Yes, the European Union can suspend funds to Hungary if its new transparency bill — or any law — undermines the rule of law or threatens the EU's financial interests. This power comes from the Rule of Law Conditionality Mechanism." She contended that a law that weakens civil society also undermines the EU's overall economic interests. What can the EU do next? The EU also has other options that it can resort to before cutting funds intended to aid economic development in Hungary and thus to benefit the general population. Back in 2017, it managed to dissuade Hungary from introducing a similar transparency law by initiating an infringement procedure, a multilayered process through which the EU expressed its displeasure to Hungary. Upon no change in Budapest's attitudes, Brussels eventually took Hungary to the Court of Justice of the European Union (EU) The court concluded that Hungary had "introduced discriminatory and unjustified restrictions on foreign donations to civil society organizations." Since the new bill was tabled last week, the EU has refrained from scolding Hungary and merely said it is waiting to see whether it is enacted into law. Vegh believes another infringement procedure is the EU's likely next step. But the fact that Hungary is trying to push through the law again, may require the EU to change its approach and take a more stern stand.
Politico
14-03-2025
- Politics
- Politico
MAGA's new pet European project
MAGA HOTSPOT — MAGA has zeroed in on another European fellow traveler, one more character to knit into its global, far-right populist alliance: Romanian ultranationalist Călin Georgescu. The 62-year-old Georgescu has campaigned for president on a message of making Romania great again, insisting that under his leadership the country will not be treated as second-class in the European Union and NATO. He's styled himself as the Romanian Trump, while also expressing admiration for Russian culture and declaring Russian President Vladimir Putin a patriot. He's the rare candidate who can boast support from both the Trump administration and Putin. But there's one big problem: Romanian authorities just barred Georgescu from running for president. The country's electoral bureau rejected his candidacy Sunday, pointing to Georgescu's undeclared campaign financing and fraudulent use of digital technologies during last year's campaign. Georgescu appealed, but the Constitutional Court upheld the electoral authority's decision. The backstory is complicated and understanding it requires some familiarity with Romania's recent past — and its interaction with the rest of Europe. In the first round of Romania's presidential election last November, Georgescu came out of nowhere to capture a plurality of the vote, edging out multiple establishment candidates. In the immediate aftermath of the election, observers credited Georgescu's TikTok campaign that took off just weeks before the election. But that online effort immediately came under scrutiny. First, Romania's election authority accused the Chinese platform of violating the country's election rule by not identifying Georgescu as a political candidate, thus boosting his profile at the expense of other candidates. TikTok rejected the accusations. In addition, declassified intelligence documents disclosed after the first election round alleged Georgescu had benefited from a Russia-style booster campaign and that paid influencers, along with members of extremist, right-wing groups and people with ties to organized crime, had promoted his candidacy online. Georgescu denied any links to Russia, and accused mainstream political parties of using the same playbook against his victory as Democrats did against Trump after his 2016 victory. The accusations, though, led Romanian election authorities to invalidate the November results and hold a new election in May. Buoyed by his newfound surge in popularity, Georgescu looked poised to win again — until he was barred this week. The scandal speaks to both the strength and the challenges facing the global right. Georgescu found significant support relying on Romanian religious and cultural symbols in his campaign rhetoric. He captured a nation disillusioned by the political establishment, which has been constantly buffeted by corruption scandals, and in particular rural areas of the country that continue to struggle to make ends meet. But he became anathema to Romanians who value European Union membership, which has increased living standards in Romania's big cities, and the protection that NATO membership affords the former Soviet satellite state. And Romanian authorities decided that the irregularities from Georgescu's first campaign were enough to ban Georgescu in May, as well. That decision has predictably attracted the ire of the American right. The appearance of some parallels between Georgescu's treatment and Trump's experience with the American court system and the political establishment in particular caught MAGA's attention. Elon Musk called the decision to bar Georgescu 'crazy' in a post on X. And last month, Vice President JD Vance pointed to Romania's November election cancellation as an example of Europe's democratic backslide in his speech at the Munich Security Conference. 'Now, to many of us on the other side of the Atlantic, it looks more and more like old, entrenched interests hiding behind ugly, Soviet-era words like 'misinformation' and 'disinformation,' who simply don't like the idea that somebody with an alternative viewpoint might express a different opinion, or, God forbid, vote a different way, or, even worse, win an election,' Vance said. 'While America is becoming great again, Europe and Romania have become petty, corrupt and under dictatorship,' Georgescu himself said on X about the decision this week, notably writing in English. It all adds up to a grievance against old political institutions that increasingly knows no borders. And while Romania's establishment has so far been successful in shutting Georgescu out, the incident looks like the beginning of a movement rather than the end. After the decision, hundreds of Georgescu supporters protested outside the Central Election Bureau's headquarters in Bucharest with a simple refrain: 'The last resort is another revolution.' Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out with news, tips and ideas at nightly@ Or contact tonight's author at cpaun@ or on X (formerly known as Twitter) at @carmenpaun. What'd I Miss? — Senate moves ahead on shutdown votes: Senate leaders struck a deal today to pave the way for passage of the House GOP's seven-month stopgap spending bill and avoid a government shutdown. Under the deal, Democrats agreed to speed up consideration of the bill to allow a vote today in exchange for votes on four amendments — but not Democrats' preferred four-week funding alternative. Without an accord, it would have taken days to get the stopgap bill through the Senate and a shutdown would have started just after midnight on Saturday. — Education Department launches investigation into dozens of colleges: The Department of Education opened investigations into dozens of universities today, part of President Donald Trump's campaign to pressure the higher education world to fall in line with his administration. The Education Department alleged these schools violated civil rights laws by offering race-based scholarships and programs, part of an ongoing crusade to snuff out diversity, equity and inclusion programs across the country. The Education Department's investigation targets 45 public and private universities — including Vanderbilt, Yale and Duke — which participated in a program called 'The Ph.D. Project,' which the agency said in a news release 'limit[ed] eligibility based on the race of participants.' — Mace sued for defamation by man she accused of abuse in floor speech: Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) is facing a defamation lawsuit filed by one of the four men she has publicly accused of sexual abuse in a floor speech, in a case that could test the legal protections members of Congress have for their official conduct. The South Carolinian took to the House floor last month to accuse her ex-fiance, Charleston businessman Patrick Bryant, and three other men of rape, sex trafficking and nonconsensually filming sex acts with her and others. Now Brian Musgrave, one of the other men Mace named on the House floor, is suing the member of Congress for defamation. — Greenland's party chiefs unite against Trump's annexation threats: The leaders of all five parties in Greenland's parliament put out a rare joint statement today rebuking President Donald Trump's renewed threats to take over the Arctic island. The unified response came after Trump once again suggested this week that the U.S. could seize the self-ruling Danish territory. He has repeatedly threatened to grab Greenland in recent months, setting off alarm bells in Copenhagen and Nuuk by not ruling out using military force. 'I think it will happen,' Trump answered Thursday when asked by a reporter if the U.S. could 'annex' Greenland during an Oval Office meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte. Greenland hit back today, with the party leaders calling Trump's saber-rattling 'unacceptable' and lambasting his 'attempts to create discord.' — Trump calls for imprisoning his opponents in speech at Justice Department: President Donald Trump today walked into the Department of Justice and labeled his courtroom opponents 'scum,' judges 'corrupt' and the prosecutors who investigated him 'deranged.' With the DOJ logo directly behind him, Trump called for his legal tormentors to be sent to prison. In remarks that were by turns dark, exultant and pugnacious, Trump vowed to remake the agency and retaliate against his enemies. It was, even by Trump's standards, a stunning show of disregard for decades of tradition observed by his predecessors, who worried about politicizing or appearing to exert too much control over the nation's most powerful law enforcement agency. Trump, instead, called himself the 'chief law enforcement officer in our country' and accused the DOJ's prior leadership of doing 'everything within their power to prevent' him from becoming the president. AROUND THE WORLD NO LAUGHING MATTER — As G7 foreign ministers enjoyed Canadian hospitality in a five-star hotel in rural Quebec, their Canadian host sounded frustrated. 'I think many of my colleagues coming here thought that this issue is still a joke, and that this had to be taken in a humorous way. But I said to them, this is not a joke,' Canadian Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly said today. 'Canadians are anxious. Canadians are proud people. And you are here in a sovereign country.' The previous day, Trump had said Canada 'only works as a state' — the latest in a long string of his comments about annexing Canada as the U.S.' '51st state.' While Canadian sovereignty isn't an official topic of discussion at the G7, it was an issue impossible for members to avoid amid Trump's provocations and Joly's insistence that her counterparts take the matter seriously. She also offered stern words for U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio. 'What I said to the secretary is Canada's sovereignty is not up to debate, period,' she said. 'You're here, you respect us, you respect our sovereignty, you're in our country, you respect our people. Period.' DIFFERENT STORIES — Hamas said today it has accepted a proposal from mediators to release one living American-Israeli hostage and the bodies of four dual-nationals who had died in captivity. The Israeli prime minister's office cast doubt on the offer, accusing Hamas of trying to manipulate talks underway in Qatar on the next stage of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire. The militant group in the Gaza Strip did not immediately specify when the release of soldier Edan Alexander and the four bodies would take place — or what it expected to get in return. Nightly Number RADAR SWEEP MACHINE MADNESS — Generative AI is making it more difficult for visual artists to find work. But Ben Zhao, a University of Chicago professor and computer scientist is determined to make sure that AI models aren't able to scrape art without permission from the artists. It's a pitched battle — copyright laws are not written for the AI era, and artists are thus often relying on private software to attempt to shield their work from models that use it in their learning process. For Chicago magazine, Kelley Elgenbrecht writes about Zhao and the work that his lab at the University of Chicago is doing on this issue. Parting Image Did someone forward this email to you? Sign up here.
