Latest news with #TiborNavracsics
Reuters
3 days ago
- Business
- Reuters
Hungarian minister calls for safeguards in contested transparency bill
BUDAPEST, June 5 (Reuters) - A Hungarian government minister said on Thursday that a new transparency bill targeting foreign-funded groups must not be used for political prosecution and should contain safeguards, highlighting differences within the ruling party over the plan. Prime Minister Viktor Orban, in power since 2010, pledged in March to crack down on foreign funding of independent media, opposition politicians and NGOs. The bill, submitted to parliament by Orban's nationalist Fidesz party on May 14, would draft a list of organisations that get foreign funding and restrict or even shut them down if deemed to threaten Hungary's sovereignty and its culture. Critics say the bill aims to stifle political dissent ahead of a national election due in 2026 when Orban faces an unprecedented challenge from a new opposition party. The bill has prompted street protests, while scores of editors from leading European news outlets signed a petition last month calling on Hungary to scrap the bill. On Wednesday Fidesz unexpectedly postponed a parliamentary debate on the legislation and said a vote would not take place before the summer recess. Regional Development Minister Tibor Navracsics said he backed the original purpose of the legislation to create transparency over the finances of groups influencing public discourse but voiced opposition to some provisions. "If we must be drawing up a list (of organisations), then that must be as specific as possible, or the possibility of judicial recourse must be provided," Navracsics, a former justice minister, told the Otpontban political podcast. Navracsics, a former European Commissioner, said he also opposed a proposal to strip targeted organisations of the right to receive voluntary income tax donations from the public. Navracsics dismissed speculation that Orban would not contest the upcoming election as prime minister but he said the lavish lifestyle of some ruling party politicians and businessmen around Fidesz was "harmful". "I do not know if this will be a decisive factor (in the election). However, from my own constituency I know there are indeed people irritated by such levels of wealth inequality," he said.
Budapest Times
10-04-2025
- Business
- Budapest Times
Navracsics: Hungary isn't wasting its European Union funding
Tibor Navracsics said those investments would also contribute to making the EU more competitive. Tibor Navracsics, the minister for public administration and rural development, said Hungary isn't wasting its European Union funding, but investing it in its future competitiveness. Addressing the 18th Annual International Conference of Competitiveness Operational Programs, Navracsics said those investments would also contribute to making the EU more competitive. In terms of absorption of EU funding, Hungary was 'at the forefront' for the 2014-2020 funding period, and it still is in the current period 'in spite of much more difficult circumstances', he added. Navracsics said it was 'very distressing' that Hungary still had to face suspensions of funding from three operative programmes from time to time. He added that those suspensions not only deprived Hungarian businesses of resources and the Hungarian economy of investments but also denied the opportunity to strengthen competitiveness.
Budapest Times
28-01-2025
- Politics
- Budapest Times
Navracsics: Holocaust was ‘inexplicable, unjustifiable and unacceptable low point'
Tibor Navracsics noted that the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp had been liberated on this day 80 years ago. Tibor Navracsics, the minister of public administration and regional development, said the Holocaust was 'an inexplicable, unjustifiable and unacceptable low point' of Europe's civilization. Speaking at a commemoration marking International Holocaust Remembrance Day at Budapest's Pava Street Holocaust Memorial Centre on Monday, Minister Navracsics said in his speech that the Holocaust had been 'a tragedy for not only European Jews but for the whole of civilisation… It is inexplicable why Europe, the continent of Christianity and enlightenment, could tolerate the Holocaust in the middle of the 20th century.' Navracsics noted that the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp had been liberated on this day 80 years ago, adding that 'it was an important day, a milestone, but not a start or end date in terms of the developments of the Holocaust.' He said anti-Semitism, culminating in 'a devastating campaign', had gathered strength in the 1920s and 30s. And the effects of the Holocaust, he said, resulted in 'decades of half-broken, derailed lives,' he said.
