- summary
- At the European Parliament LIBE Committee public hearing on fundamental rights and rule of law in Hungary (December 7, 2017), Miklos Szantho of the pro-government Centre for Fundamental Rights argued that the values in Article 2 TEU are undefined and can therefore be interpreted differently in Hungary than by EU institutions. Deployed legal relativism to contest the normative basis for EU scrutiny of LexNGO and anti-CSO measures. The Centre for Fundamental Rights is a Fidesz-aligned government-funded think tank operating as institutional proxy at European and international forums to deflect external accountability. Appearance coordinated with Foreign Minister Szijjarto's performance at the same hearing, where he repeated allegations against Soros-funded NGOs days after a Hungarian court had condemned Fidesz for identical allegations against HHC.
- country
- Hungary
- date text
- 12/2017
- entities
- Centre for Fundamental Rights (Miklos Szantho); Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto
- entity type
- GONGO; Government
- id
- 855
- name
- Centre for Fundamental Rights (Miklos Szantho); Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto
- role
- actor
- European Parliament LIBE Committee scrutiny process; EU normative framework on rule of law and fundamental rights; civil society organizations challenging LexNGO
- entity type
- Institutional
- id
- 856
- name
- European Parliament LIBE Committee scrutiny process; EU normative framework on rule of law and fundamental rights; civil society organizations challenging LexNGO
- role
- target
- Centre for Fundamental Rights (Miklos Szantho); Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto
- sources
- citation
- European Civic Forum LIBE hearing report Dec 7, 2017 (civic-forum.eu); European Parliament LIBE Committee hearing records
- tactics
- GONGO Institutional Operations
- label
- GONGO Institutional Operations
- code
- TC-26
- needs review
- false
- role
- primary
- Academic / Foreign Authority Legitimization
- label
- Academic / Foreign Authority Legitimization
- code
- TC-29
- needs review
- false
- role
- secondary
- GONGO Institutional Operations
- 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 2: Media Execution
- channels
- European Parliament
- International Forum
- consequence category
- Social Trust Erosion
- created at
- 2026-09-24T17:50:55.358311+00:00
- date precision
- month
- escalation
- 3
- harm track
- Track 2 — Social Trust Erosion
- id
- HUN-017
- institutional consequence
- EU-level normative scrutiny contested; LIBE hearing narrative partially captured; legal relativism deployed as template for EU accountability deflection
- notes
- TC-26: GONGO (Centre for Fundamental Rights) deployed institutionally at EU level. TC-29: pseudo-academic legal authority legitimization of relativist position on EU values. Szijjarto appearance same day as European Commission referral of Hungary to CJEU over LexNGO. Coordination of GONGO academic and ministerial messaging at same hearing documents two-track EU-level playbook operation.
- occurred on
- 2017-12-01
- trigger type
- TR-06: Reactive to Legal Challenge
- updated at
- 2026-09-24T17:50:55.358311+00:00
- version
- 1
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