Márki-Zay’s foreign funding 

A pro-government columnist claims that by receiving several hundred million Forints in campaign donations from a US foundation, the opposition frontrunner in the April election became a puppet of his foreign supporters.

In an interview with Magyar Hang, Péter Márki-Zay said that he received hundreds of millions as a campaign donation from the US foundation Action for Democracy. Some of the money arrived in June, well after the April election and was used to settle campaign debts, Mr Márki-Zay said, adding that the donation had been raised among Hungarian Americans, but he doubted that George Soros was one of them. Government politicians suggested that Márki-Zay may have violated campaign finance regulations by receiving foreign donations. The foundation said the donation was directed to Márki Zay’s NGO and was not meant to finance electoral activities.

Magyar Nemzet’s Tamás Pilhál, in a sarcastic commentary takes Márki-Zay’s acknowledgement of receiving foreign financial support as further proof that the opposition is in the service of foreign interests. The pro-government columnist suspects that foreign donors supporting Márki-Zay considered their help as an investment, hoping to get back their money and more, in case of an opposition victory at the April Parliamentary election. Pilhál claims that the opposition focused on anti-corruption messages, and pro-immigration and pro-LGBTQ ideas, called for support for Ukraine by sending weapons, and criticized the government’s price caps because this is what their foreign donors expected them to do.

Tags: campaign financing, Márki-Zay