“Hungary needs Europe rather than Russia and prisons should not be filled with civil activists or opposition politicians - as in Russia - but with corrupt politicians and criminals,” they added. Green LMP said they would request the Constitutional Court’s scrutiny of the new law.

Zsuzsanna Szelényi of the Együtt (Together) party called the law “immoral, discriminative and unnecessary”. According to the Liberal Party, the government’s aim was to stigmatise civil organisations and restrict their room for manoeuvre rather than to increase transparency through the “Russian-style” law. The Civil Liberties Union (TASZ) and the Hungarian Helsinki Committee indicated that they would boycott the law and not register.

Amnesty International said the law was aimed against organisations helping “the poor, sick children, refugees, migrants and other vulnerable groups” providing services for them which “the state should but would not”.

Ruling Fidesz said in a statement that TASZ and the Helsinki Committee have “openly turned against the will of the Hungarian people” through their boycotting the law, which Fidesz sees as necessary “to screen the network of (George) Soros”.

“Soros has declared war on Hungary; he wants to dismantle the (border) fence and bring in migrants, using his agencies”, Fidesz added in its statement.

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