Hungarian Activist Defends NGOs Despite Police Raid
For Veronika Móra, the fall of the Berlin Wall was just the beginning. At the upcoming Impact Summit, she will share how the fight for democracy and the environment is ongoing and never truly ends.
In the revolutionary period of the late 1980s, as Europe and Hungary experienced profound changes, Veronika Móra was working in the Netherlands as a liaison for the environmental foundation Milieukontakt Oosteuropa, focused on Hungary. As a biology student, she was particularly frustrated that she couldn’t be present for some of the pivotal events that followed Hungary’s transition from communism. She recalls, for example, the taxi drivers’ strike against high fuel prices. Although she now sees the reasons for the strike as unjustified, she emphasizes one point: it was an event where the whole city came together to show solidarity with others by disrupting traffic.
Veronika holds two university degrees – one in biology and the other in social psychology – and has been active in the civil sector for over thirty years. This sector has faced its most significant challenges since the rise of Viktor Orbán’s government. Since 2010, Orbán’s administration has systematically restricted the activities of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Hungary. The government’s attacks on civil society reached their peak in 2014, when, shortly after the ruling party’s re-election, the head of the Prime Minister’s office announced plans to target organizations receiving funding from European and Norwegian funds.
A few weeks later, a group of police officers raided the offices of Ökotárs, an organization where Veronika has served as director since 2007. They searched documents and computers, and Veronika was handcuffed and taken to her apartment, where her computer was also seized. The operation lasted several hours, during which time employees were prohibited from contacting anyone. The court later ruled the raid as an unlawful action, but the government never issued a public apology.
The government’s crackdown on NGOs continued in 2017 with the introduction of the notorious law on the transparency of foreign-funded organizations. This law required NGOs to register as “organizations receiving foreign funding” if their support from abroad exceeded 24,000 euros. (Note: A similar law, inspired by Hungary, Poland, and Russia, has recently been proposed by the Slovak government, though experts suggest it may be even stricter than Hungary’s version.)
However, Veronika points out that the label of “foreign-funded” was just one small part of the broader law. Its main purpose was to stigmatize and launch a campaign against civil society organizations, many of which rely heavily on voluntary public donations.
In response to the law, Ökotárs, under Veronika’s leadership, along with 33 other NGOs, formed the Civilizáció coalition. This platform coordinates cooperation among Hungarian organizations in their fight for their rights. Thanks to the coalition’s efforts, several laws against civil society were rejected at the European level, including the 2017 law. However, it’s important to note that some of these laws remain in force in Hungary.
Through the Civilizáció coalition, they continue to focus on problematic laws and measures that limit the rights of NGOs, freedom of speech, and the rights of LGBTI+ individuals. Veronika emphasizes the importance of international cooperation in preserving democratic values and civil liberties in the country. However, she also stresses that the fight ultimately lies with the citizens themselves, as it is the public that benefits most from these rights and the work of NGOs.
