To misquote von Clausewitz, the European Union sees lawfare as the continuation of politics by other means. Brussels’s latest sally against the government of Viktor Orbán in Hungary, which it viscerally detests (and which seriously rattled Eurocrats last week with its calculated brinkmanship over the Ukrainian aid programme) is a nice example.
The new casus belli is a piece of domestic Hungarian legislation from last year, the Act on the Defence of National Sovereignty. (For a fairly rough English translation of the law, see here.) The measure is essentially aimed at making it harder for transnational NGOs and foreign-funded organisations like the Soros Foundation (called the ‘dollar left’ and the ‘Soros Empire’ in Hungary) to campaign on matters of domestic Hungarian social policy. It also aims to stem the flow of foreign money to Hungarian candidates and political parties.
Put briefly, the new law beefs up the criminal prohibitions on foreign subventions to Hungarian politicians, and sets up a governmental Office for the Defence of Sovereignty.
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