LOCAL GOVERNANCE IN THE CROSSHAIRS: AN OVERLOOKED FRONT OF THE STRUGGLE FOR EUROPEAN DEMOCRACY

1 Mar 2023

Our new regional research report highlights how the more lasting effects of the pandemic have manifested through changing legislation, municipalities’ access to funding, transparency and accessibility of local decision-making.

THE SUMMARY OF K-MONITOR'S ACTIVITIES IN 2022

23 Jan 2023

There was plenty for the corruption watchdog K-Monitor to do! 

Conditionality mechanism: NGO assessment of remedial measures

18 Nov 2022

With the 19 November deadline given to the Hungarian government to enact the remedial measures it committed to in the framework of the conditionality mechanism nearing, the Hungarian Helsinki Committee, K-Monitor and Transparency International Hungary prepared a new joint analysis on the matter.

Half-Hearted Promises, Disappointing Delivery

7 Oct 2022

An Assessment of the Hungarian Government’s New Measures to Protect the EU Budget and Related Recommendations

FIDESZ TO HOLLOW OUT THE HUNGARIAN LAW ON MPS’ ASSET DECLARATION

4 Jul 2022

Although the Hungarian law on MPs’ asset declaration has long been criticized by many for inefficiency, the Hungarian public has often been left stunned by the wealth of the political elite revealed in asset declarations. Now, Fidesz MPs submitted a bill that plans to disperse the last safeguards that serves some transparency of the wealth of politicians.

ELECTION CAMPAIGN: THE HUNGARIAN STATE IN ACTION

19 Apr 2022

After a 50-day official campaign period, general elections were held in Hungary on 3 April, and FIDESZ, in government since 2010, won a supermajority for the fourth time. The election results are hardly surprising given the government's gravity in campaigning. 

Orban’s Fidesz has likely overspent in Hungary’s election campaign

31 Mar 2022

Fidesz itself seems to have violated the spending cap of HUF 1.177 bn, just with its billboard ads worth HUF 1.4 bn. Altogether pro-government forces have spent HUF 3bn on outdoor ads in March.

EU’S FINANCIAL INTERESTS SAFEGUARDED. OR NOT?

18 Feb 2022

The EU Court of Justice has given green light to the Commission’s Rule of Law mechanism: the misuse of EU funds could soon have more severe consequences. The Luxembourg court's ruling comes after Hungary, criticized for systemic corruption, and Poland, whose judicial independence is under threat, asked the CJEU to annul the Regulation on the conditionality system for protecting the EU budget, saying the EU had no right to adopt it.

Hungary’s State of Corruption Heading Towards Elections

17 Feb 2022

After 12 years of authoritarian rule, Orbán’s System of National Cooperation has reached its final shape. In 2021 Fidesz did its best to cement its positions in oversight institutions and markets it hijacked. Without being really aware of it, Hungarians donated national assets worth billions of Euros to the power elite of the regime. The institutions concerned have largely accepted this logic of power, just as the majority of the society.

THERE IS NOTHING MYSTERIOUS ABOUT PUBLIC BUDGETS: IT'S OUR MONEY!

10 Dec 2021

We published a website covering the 2022 national budget with a data visualization based on comprehensive data. The central government has never created a 'Citizens’ budget' document that would illustrate how the money is being spent and why.