In a recent Facebook post, Political Director for the Prime Minister of Hungary Balázs Orbán has announced that, after over a decade, the Norway Grants will be sending funds to civil organizations in Hungary again.
The Norwegian government’s grant scheme was originally set up in 2004 to help mitigate the economic disparities between the nations inside the European Economic Area (EEA). In 2014, however, they ceased funding to Hungarian organizations after the Orbán administration accused the Hungarian Environmental Partnership Foundation (Ökotárs Alapítvány), the Hungarian non-profit group in charge of allocating funds received from the Norway Grant, of political bias when deciding which civil institutions to support.
After Norway Grants’ return to Hungary, Ökotárs will once again be in control of allocating their funds, despite their prior controversies.
‘The Environmental Partnership Foundation has announced that there will be a Norway Fund in Hungary again, and—unsurprisingly—they will distribute the money. This time, the good Norwegians will support the liberal network with €20 million. Hurray! We are saved. Once again, the enlightened blue helmets are bringing us their freest progressive ideas and the “love country” of gender ideology. How good for us!’ Director Orbán wrote sarcastically in his post on Friday, 4 July.
‘At this point, I would just like to ask whether it is normal for a foreign country to “give” the money it pays to access the Hungarian market to Hungary by financing a liberal political campaign to brainwash the people living here…I would like to recommend something else instead.
Could it not be used to support the renovation of a hospital, for example? To say something that voters on all sides can agree on. What if we Hungarians, government and opposition voters together, asked the good Norwegians to use this money to support the modernization of a Hungarian hospital instead of what they are planning to do? After all, the opposition has blocked the renovation of 50 hospitals,’ Orbán continues.
With his latter statement, he is referring to MEP Kinga Kollár for the Hungarian opposition Tisza Party praising the European Union for freezing Hungary’s cohesion funds over supposed rule of law concerns, as she believes it bolsters the opposition’s chances in next year’s parliamentary election. In her speech, she herself admitted that the frozen funding from the EU’s Recovery and Resilience Facility could have been used to renovate 50 hospitals in the country.
‘It would be a win-win situation: there would be no tension, it would be good for the country and it could be such a nice project. It would make the Hungarian and Norwegian people happy. Of course, the Environmental Partnership Foundation might be a bit sad, but I don’t think that is too bad for anyone else,’ Director Orbán concluded his post.
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