Hungarian PM Viktor Orban vows NGO crackdown

BUDAPEST

Hungary is planning to outlaw NGOs that receive funds from the United States, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said, taking inspiration from U.S. President Donald Trump's crackdown on foreign aid.

Orban, one of Trump's closest allies in the European Union, praised the president's move to hobble his government's humanitarian agency USAID, describing it as a "cleansing wind" and a "Trump tornado."

"All money coming from America should be disclosed and those who receive it should be sanctioned. Money from abroad cannot be accepted to influence Hungarian politics," Orban said in his weekly interview with state radio.

The nationalist leader has long accused political opponents, NGOs and media outlets of serving foreign interests, and called USAID money a "tool of political influence."

USAID, the aid arm of U.S. foreign policy, funds health and emergency programs in around 120 countries, including the world's poorest regions.

Orban said Hungarian NGOs receiving funds from USAID "specifically supported issues that were linked to the left-wing parties" and were financed to "bring down the government."

"Now is the moment to eliminate these international networks, to wipe them out, to make their existence legally impossible," he said.

Governing parties passed a law in 2017 targeting NGOs receiving funding from abroad, but had to repeal it after a formal notice from the European Union.