Zoltán Kovács noted that the United States had regulated CSOs since the 1930s. He said there were “a few dozen organisations” working in Hungary “funded from foreign money with the aim of changing the extant political framework”.

Such groupings had previously occupied themselves with the situation of the Roma but now their main preoccupation is migration, Kovács said, adding that the groups, which were trying to undermine European Union and Hungarian laws, received “several hundreds of millions” from US financier George Soros.

The spokesman said NGOs were unelected but were assuming the roles of elected officials without the authorisation of the people.

Republished with permission of Hungary Matters, MTI’s daily newsletter.

MTI photo: Koszticsák Szilárd