- summary
- Government introduced Bill on Transparency of Public Life in May 2025 — branded Operation Starve and Strangle by civil society. Would allow government to blacklist any for-profit or non-profit entity as a sovereignty threat with sweeping restrictions on funding sources, operational activities, and public communications. Simultaneously targets independent civil society and independent media sector infrastructure. Goes beyond SPO by adding operational prohibition powers. UPDATE (Sep 2026): The bill was never adopted. The vote expected in mid-June 2025 was postponed amid mass protests, internal Fidesz dissent and EU pressure, and the bill disappeared from parliament's agenda. See Civic Responses CR-HUN-008.
- country
- Hungary
- date text
- 05/2025
- entities
- Fidesz parliamentary majority; Government
- entity type
- Government
- id
- 845
- name
- Fidesz parliamentary majority; Government
- role
- actor
- All independent CSOs and media (named: HHC, TI-HU, Atlatszo, Amnesty International Hungary)
- entity type
- CSO; Media
- id
- 846
- name
- All independent CSOs and media (named: HHC, TI-HU, Atlatszo, Amnesty International Hungary)
- role
- target
- Fidesz parliamentary majority; Government
- sources
- citation
- Helsinki Committee May 2025 entries: Operation Starve and Strangle reports (May 15 and May 22, 2025)
- tactics
- Legislative Operationalization
- label
- Legislative Operationalization
- code
- TC-18
- needs review
- false
- role
- primary
- Foreign Agent Legislation
- label
- Foreign Agent Legislation
- code
- TC-23
- needs review
- false
- role
- secondary
- Legislative Operationalization
- narratives
- Sovereignty / National Interest
- label
- Sovereignty / National Interest
- code
- LEGACY-N-517b41c3bd56
- needs review
- true
- role
- primary
- Foreign Agent / Foreign Influence
- label
- Foreign Agent / Foreign Influence
- code
- NF-01
- needs review
- false
- role
- secondary
- Sovereignty / National Interest
- campaign ids
- campaign phase
- Phase 4: Institutionalization
- channels
- Legislative
- Parliament
- civic response
- Joint open letters to the European Commission; mass protests; public campaign naming the bill. | Outcome (see Civic Responses CR-HUN-008): 320+ organisations wrote to the EU and mass protests followed; the vote was postponed (June 2025) and the bill dropped from the agenda.
- consequence category
- Financial Strangulation
- created at
- 2026-09-24T17:50:55.358311+00:00
- date precision
- month
- escalation
- 5
- harm track
- Track 1 — Financial Strangulation
- id
- HUN-012
- institutional consequence
- Threatened elimination of independent civil society and media infrastructure — the threat did not materialise: the bill was dropped in 2025 (CR-HUN-008).
- notes
- CAMP-003 anchor incident. Combines blacklisting (TC-18) with foreign agent stigmatization (TC-23) into single omnibus mechanism.
- occurred on
- 2025-05-01
- response ids
- trigger type
- TR-08: Proactive / Ambient
- updated at
- 2026-09-24T23:55:17.783257+00:00
- version
- 2
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