Gimme the money: Post-USAID, political grifters shift their focus to Brussels

(Editor’s note: On April 23, Politico published an article by David Koranyi, a political activist who is a Hungarian-American dual national, claiming that the Hungarian government was threatening to strip him of his citizenship because of his political beliefs. When Andras Laszlo, MEP for Fidesz Party and Government Commissioner tasked with uncovering the USAID-funded political corruption in Hungary, approached Politico for a right of correction and reply, his approach was ignored. Here is Laszlo’s answer to Koranyi’s accusations.)

Dávid Korányi is a man who played a key role in funnelling massive amounts of American funds to the election campaign of the Hungarian Left in 2022. He is now back, playing the role of victim and grifting again. With the next Hungarian elections expected in less than a year, we can expect him and his usual patterns to surface again.

To the more important point first: Korányi in a recent piece in Politico complained about every political thing in Hungary from silencing dissent, to personal surveillance and the state of democracy. This is a man who set up an organisation to raise millions of dollars from George Soros and other international megadonors to move against the democratically-elected Hungarian government, yet is now playing the victim. He, who created and leads an organisation set up in the US specifically to interfere in elections abroad, including Hungary, is complaining about the state of democracy.

And he has just publicly committed to doing it all over again in Hungary’s next election.

The majority of international media which frequently publish opinion pieces bashing Hungary have failed to report to what extent the 2022 elections were manipulated by illegal foreign financing and a shady network of organisations set up to cover up foreign interference.

In 2022, Hungarians witnessed the most severe foreign election interference scandal since our transition from socialism to democracy after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Korányi’s organization funnelled millions of dollars into the election campaign of the Hungarian Left, in violation of Hungarian election rules. This was clearly concluded by the Hungarian Court of Auditors. The political parties which benefited from the foreign funding were fined. With his help and funding, the network of organisations running the Left’s election campaign bought and used the data of a vast amount of Hungarian citizens through companies set up outside Hungary.

His fearmongering now regarding the possibility of suspending the Hungarian citizenship of dual citizens is literally unbelievable to Hungarians or anyone who knows Hungarian politics. It is the conservative parliamentary majority that amended the law to facilitate dual citizenship for ethnic Hungarians and allowed authorities to then grant Hungarian citizenship to more than a million people since 2010.

Few people outside Hungary know that after World War I, the map of Central Europe was almost completely redrawn and two-thirds of Hungary’s territory was taken away and given to neighbouring states. Many citizens of these states are still ethnic Hungarians, speak Hungarian and may now enjoy Hungarian citizenship. The vote that amended the Hungarian citizenship law was a historic moment which carried both moral and practical significance. It was the Hungarian Left and liberals who have long opposed and even campaigned against granting the possibility of dual citizenship to ethnic Hungarians, turning Hungarians on one side of the border against Hungarians on the other. For Korányi (or anyone on the Left) to bring up the issue of citizenship, or use it for fearmongering, is more than ironic.

However, one thing is clear: Korányi, the Hungarian Left and their foreign backers have learned nothing. Despite the massive foreign interference scandal of 2022, the Hungarian globalist Left is still grifting for more foreign money. And at the same time, they demand that the EU freeze funds that are meant for Hungary according to the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF), the EU’s seven-year budget deal. The so-called NGOs and experts that have been calling for sanctions against Hungary for years are almost all funded by organisations close to George Soros, by EU institutions or by what was the Democrat-led US government.

The seismic shift in US foreign policy is not going unnoticed in Europe. Political activists masquerading as NGOs have long enjoyed the generous support of left-wing elites that have captured US agencies. They now plead for EU money instead. That is exactly what Korányi is doing, too.

Grifting in Brussels will be particularly intensive. The new US administration has decided to shut down the corrupt financial flows coming from USAID and the State Department.

Under the presidency of Joe Biden, USAID launched a grant to fund political interference in Central European countries, called the Central Europe Program. That is now shut down. State Secretary Marco Rubio announced the reorganization of the US State Department, highlighting that the State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor “waged a vendetta against anti-woke leaders in nations such as Poland, Hungary, and Brazil”.

In Hungary under Biden, USAID and the US Embassy funded left-wing organizations and media either directly or through intermediaries like the German Marshall Fund, Dexis Consulting, the Zinc Network, IREX, NED, NDI, the Hungarian Helsinki Committee, Ökotárs Foundation, DemNet and on it goes. Even on the last day, just hours before Donald J. Trump was inaugurated president, grant decisions worth hundreds of thousands of dollars of funding were announced for left-wing media in Hungary. Korányi’s organization, Action for Democracy, was also a beneficiary of USAID funds.

They now have their eyes set on EU funds (like CERV, LIFE, etc.) to fill the funding gap left by USAID. Like his father before him, Alex Soros also showed up in Brussels, to meet with EU Commissioner Marta Kos.

Whether they be financed from the US or the EU, we would be foolish to idly watch the same globalist network interfere in the 2026 Hungarian elections again.

We will defend our freedom, Hungary’s sovereignty and democracy.