In recent days and weeks, I have again received numerous press inquiries concerning the civil society support we have provided to frontline organizations in Hungary through Action for Democracy. In order to be able to concentrate on my actual work (defending democracy) and not spend all my time responding to innuendoes and conspiracy theories, I will repeat the following one last time:
1. I am proud of what we have achieved with Action for Democracy in less than a year. We are striving to build a new, international solidarity network, and become a new kind of 'freedom funder’, harnessing the power of diasporas and the growing power of our community. I am confident that our positive impact will be felt for decades to come in many countries struggling for democracy.
2. We have never provided money to political parties or candidates' campaigns, unlike Fidesz, which uses taxpayers' money to support various extremist political allies abroad. We have supported a pro-democracy, anti-authoritarian, pro-EU, pro-NATO, pro-Ukraine narrative, and the defence of basic human dignity and decency. We have done this with rigorous adherence to all legal frameworks. We understand, if the governing parties of Hungary feel that these messages threaten their position of power.
3. We are honoured to have a large number of supporters behind us; thousands of people who have donated a few dollars, and institutional and individual donors who have contributed larger amounts. We have never claimed that our budget is only made up of micro-grants, but we do assert that we are not funded by taxpayer dollars. All our donors have freely given their own money for our declared purposes, hoping only to strengthen democracy ‘in return'. Neither the National Endowment for Democracy nor Open Society Institute supported our organization, although it would not be contrary to our values if they did.
4. Our professional fundraising team deployed four different platforms, dozens of digital tools and hundreds of forms to reach Hungarians in the diaspora, whose donations supported, amongst others, MMM. In order to provide reassurance about the origin of our donations and to showcase that we have fulfilled our contractual obligations with MMM, we are requesting an independent audit to verify that all the money we have given to MMM has come from Hungarian citizens. To reiterate: we are not required to do this by Hungarian or US law, as there is no requirement that funding for NGOs must come exclusively from Hungarian citizens. We are doing this to draw a contrast between Fidesz's practice of public money being funneled into private pockets, as opposed to our practice of private money used for the benefit of the public.
5. Action for Democracy operates in full compliance with the law, in an utmostly mundane framework, with no contact with the Freemasons or the CIA. We have only been in contact with the Hungarian services, and only as their target, since they are snooping on us at the behest of chief propagandist Antal Rogán, instead of devoting their considerable capacities to the real threats to Hungary’s sovereignty, such as Russian and Chinese malign influence
6. We are honoured by the massive media attention, and have prepared and published a FAQ on our website, which answers all relevant questions about Action for Democracy's work.
Where there is light, there is shadow. Action for Democracy was founded to bring light to as many places as possible. Together with thousands of our supporters, we hope that in Hungary, too, democracy will once again prevail. This is what we are working for!
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Further information:
Molnár Anett, Eurolex Consulting Kft.
+36704532782 anett.molnar@eurolex.hu
Action for Democracy is a non-profit, non-partisan organization. It is funded by donations from individuals and foundations. Action for Democracy's Advisory Board is made up of internationally renowned academics, diplomats and public figures. Action for Democracy website: https://actionfordemocracy.org/