After the session, Szilárd Németh, deputy head of the committee, insisted that the civil groups in question “pose a national security risk in several ways”.

He argued that they “support migration” and that they are politically active and “have launched attacks on the Hungarian government’s migration policy”.

Németh declined to give details of the secret agencies’ “Soros report”, because the document has been classified until 2037.

Zsolt Molnár, the committee’s (Socialist) head, said at the session that “it turns out there is no Soros plan” and the organisations associated with Soros “pose no security risk of any kind”.

He argued that such organisations working in Hungary and in other European countries may have “political strategies different from that of the Hungarian government ... but these have no relevance to national security”.

“A European democracy must be tolerant of ideals or organisations that don’t fit in with the government’s activities”, he said. Bernadett Szél of the green LMP party said the committee should not have met at all on the subject.

She insisted that the information discussed had been obtained from the internet “in an attempt to prove that there is a Soros network”.

The parliamentary committee has “switched to propaganda mode”, she said, adding that “the government is now using the secret services to assist in this shameful campaign”.

Answering a question on another subject, Ádám Mirkóczki of the radical nationalist Jobbik party, said his party “is destroyed financially” and circumstances have decided the question of Jobbik’s participation in next year’s parliamentary elections.

He insisted that ruling Fidesz has “taken another step towards bolshevism” and is now “openly using theoretically independent state agencies against the strongest opposition party”.

The State Audit Office on Wednesday accused Jobbik of illegal accepting hundreds of millions of forints in party financing. Jobbik said the expected fines would wipe out its campaign budget.

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