Hungarians rally in mass protest against bill allowing blacklisting of Orban critics

BUDAPEST, Hungary — A mass protest in Hungary on Sunday drew about 10,000 people in what some demonstrators called an act of resistance against recent actions by the right-wing populist government to restrict basic rights and crack down on independent media.

The protest, the latest in a recent wave of anti-government demonstrations, came days after a lawmaker from the party of Prime Minister Viktor Orban submitted a bill that would allow the government to monitor, restrict, penalize and potentially ban media outlets and nongovernmental organizations it deems a threat to the country’s sovereignty.

The bill, which has been compared to Russia’s “foreign agent” law, is expected to pass in the parliament where Orban’s ruling Fidesz party holds a two-thirds majority. It is seen by many of Orban’s opponents as among the most repressive policies the long-serving leader has leveled at his critics in the last 15 years of his rule.

Protesters on Sunday filled the square beside Hungary’s parliament building in central Budapest to denounce the bill, which would allow the government to blacklist organizations that receive any amount of financial support from outside Hungary and subject them to intrusive monitoring, searches, major fines and possible bans on their activities.

Politicians in Fidesz, in tandem with the Sovereignty Protection Office — a controversial government body tasked with identifying alleged threats to Hungary’s sovereignty — have identified numerous media outlets and anti-corruption organizations that they claim are serving foreign interests.

From a stage at the protest Sunday, speaker Jakab Toth said the bill submitted last week “is nothing more than a threat, a threat against people being able to express their opinions clearly and freely.”

Toth added that he believes the government has a responsibility to protect the sovereignty of citizens to exercise free speech and take part in public life. “If it doesn’t belong to all of us, if not all of us are free, then sovereignty is solely and exclusively the sovereignty of the government,” he said.

Orban, who polls show faces the most serious challenge yet to his power in elections scheduled for next year, has claimed that foreign interests, primarily originating in the United States and Ukraine, have sought to utilize independent media outlets and anti-corruption watchdogs in Hungary to influence public opinion with the aim of toppling his government.

Those organizations have denied such claims, and argued that the work they perform is done to professional standards and in the public interest.

Orban has for years enacted crackdowns on nongovernmental organizations and independent media, passing laws that critics say seek to stigmatize and obstruct groups that provide protection for women and minorities, offer legal and human rights assistance and expose official corruption.

Those efforts ramped up in 2023 when Orban’s right-wing populist government created the Sovereignty Protection Office.

The bill introduced last week outlines a broad definition of what constitutes a threat to sovereignty. Organizations may be targeted if they are deemed to oppose or portray in a negative light values such as Hungary’s democratic character, national unity, traditional family structures or Christian culture — suggesting that legitimate criticism of government policy could be treated as a national security threat.

Sunday’s demonstration came after 2½ months of weekly protests against an anti-LGBTQ+ law passed in March that banned Pride events and allows authorities to use facial recognition software to identify individuals attending the festivities.

Hungary’s government has argued that its policies to restrict LGBTQ+ rights are necessary to protect children from what it calls “gender madness.” But many critics believe the measures were designed to stir up animosity against the LGBTQ+ community and help Orban mobilize his right-wing base ahead of next year’s elections.