Hungary has abolished the spending limit on elections
Kyiv • UNN
The Hungarian Parliament has abolished the restrictions on financing election campaigns, introduced in 2013 to ensure the fairness of elections. Experts believe that this is the beginning of broader changes before the next campaign.
The Hungarian Parliament has adopted legislative changes that abolish restrictions on election campaign financing.
This is reported by UNN with reference to Telex.
Details
As a matter of urgency, before the start of the summer holidays, the parliament supported the initiative of the KDNP party, submitted a week and a half ago. 133 deputies voted for the corresponding proposal, 46 voted against, one abstained.
This means that in the next parliamentary elections, parties and candidates will be able to spend funds without restrictions.
The spending limit was introduced in 2013 by the Fidesz party to ensure fair elections. At that time, each party could spend a maximum of 5 million forints for each of the 199 candidates. The amount was indexed annually, and in the last elections, the allowed limit was 5 million 910 thousand forints per candidate, which allowed a total of 1 billion 176 million forints to be spent.
According to KDNP deputies Imre Veikei, Istvan Hollik and Lerinc Naxa, who submitted the initiative, "the spending limit is outdated and no longer serves the purpose for which it was introduced in 2013, especially in view of the USAID scandal and foreign support for the opposition".
They are simply adapting the rules to practice and preventing the risk of breaking the law
Additionally
This proposal is not aimed at making campaign and party financing more controlled and transparent, but rather further weakens the already very weak rules. One of the main problems is that the State Audit Office still does not consider pre-election activities, for example, speeches by candidates campaigning during rural holidays with the support of local businesses or materials in pro-government media financed by state advertising
Let us remind you
A few weeks ago, the Hungarian government promised not to change the election rules until April 2026. However, experts suggest that the new law is the beginning of broader changes under the next parliamentary campaign.