Citing a letter by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán addressed to President Barack Obama, deputy state secretary at the ministry Levente Magyar told Goodfriend that the Hungarian government believed US statements regarding civil society in Hungary “lacked a factual basis”.

Tens of thousands of civil groups are operating in Hungary effectively and in a transparent way. Generalising based on a single ongoing case, where serious breaches of law are suspected, is not conducive to a realistic assessment of events in Hungary, Judit Fülöp, the ministry’s press chief, told MTI.

It is not in line with the spirit of the alliance between Hungary and the US for the American side to include Hungary among countries which are obviously in a different category in terms of the functioning of civil society and democracy, she said.

US statements giving a distorted image and portraying a single legal procedure as if it were an intimidation of the civil sector will not help fact-based dialogue, which Hungary advocates, but gives way to being interpreted as political pressure, she added. Goodfriend told commercial television ATV on Thursday that it was the US embassy in Budapest that supplied the US administration with information about the situation of civil society in Hungary.

He said that the US had raised its concerns as an ally and a friend, and added that he was “trying to avoid the word criticism”.

In an address given recently at a conference, US President Barack Obama mentioned Hungary among countries which restrict civil society. Antal Rogán, group leader of the ruling Fidesz party, said that Obama “may not have all the information”, while the Hungarian foreign ministry said that the president’s remarks about civil society “lacked any factual basis”.

Source www.hungarymatters.hu

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