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Orban adjacent institution funnels millions to shape public opinion in America
A recent investigation by Atlatszo, an independent Hungarian news outlet, demonstrates the level of investment Orban’s government has made in spending on its tank-tank network to build connections with conservative politicians. According to the report, Danube Institute, an Orban adjacent think tank in Budapest has paid more than $1.64 million to its foreign partners over the past three years. Danube’s payments to visiting scholars, influencers, and speakers have increased over the past three years. One 2024 contract seen by the Hungarian outlet shows a visiting lecturer Melissa Ford Maldonado, policy director of the Texas Public Policy Foundation’s (TPPF) task: writing a 10-page paper for $8400 “on Hungarian migration policy and lessons learned for the state of Texas”. Before joining TPPF, Maldonado worked for the White House under the Trump administration, as a fellow at the Office of American Innovation and then at the Domestic Policy Council. Currently, none of the Danube Institute fellows are registered as FARA lobbyists.
The Institute receives most of its funding through the publicly funded Batthyány Foundation (BLA). A major part of the funding of BLA is being spent on organizations that promote Orban’s narrative such as the Center for Fundamental Rights. The investigation claims that the cooperation between the Heritage Foundation and the Hungarian government’s proxies became more active after the 2020 elections.
Hungarian Embassy employer linked to Charlottesville rally
A U.S. citizen employed as a political assistant at the Hungarian Embassy in Washington took part in the 2017 white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, which left one counterprotester dead, an investigation by RFE/RL reveals.
Taylor James Ragg, now 29, has ties to far-right political circles in the U.S. and has publicly expressed support for former President Donald Trump. Ragg has been working as a political assistant at Hungary’s embassy in Washington since February 2021.
Video footage shows Ragg carrying a torch during a nighttime march on August 11, 2017, where white supremacists protested the removal of a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee. The rally culminated in violent clashes, and the death of a counterprotester raised national alarm over the resurgence of far-right extremism in the U.S.
Orbán: Zelensky's plan is a "plan for defeat"
Hungary's nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban shared his thoughts on the recent EU summit and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's peace plan, during his weekly interview on Hungarian state radio, Kossuth.
Orban said that the EU consists of two groups when it comes to the Ukraine war: “There are the others, and then there are us”. The EU is behaving like a “belligerent party”, he claimed. “Hungary made it clear at the outset that this is the wrong strategy, that this war cannot be won, and negotiations are needed.”
The Hungarian leader, whom critics often call Putin's strongest ally in the EU, stated that there is “no way to win with Zelensky’s victory plan”. The prime minister suggested that European leaders enter negotiations with the Russians “either on their own behalf or on behalf of Europe before the Americans enter the scene.”
"To be Hungarian means to fight," Orban calls on Hungarians to resist Brussels
Viktor Orban spoke in front of a crowd in Budapest on October 23, when Hungary commemorates its uprising against the Soviets in 1956. The Hungarian leader accused Brussels of attempting to install a “puppet government” in Hungary during his remarks.“Brussels has announced it will get rid of Hungary’s national government,” Orbán told the crowd. “They want to impose a puppet government on the country. So here we are again: do we bow to the will of a foreign power, this time from Brussels, or do we resist?” He called for a response “as clear and unequivocal as it was in 1956,” declaring he would “not tolerate Hungary being turned into a puppet state or a vassal of Brussels.”
Orbán also used the occasion to denounce EU policies and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s “victory plan” to fight back against Russian forces. “Zelensky plans to extend the war,” Orbán claimed. “It means that one day, we’d wake up to find Slavic soldiers from the east stationed on Hungarian soil again. We do not want that.”