The State Audit Office of Hungary (SAO) has published its audit reports on the accounting of funds spent on the 2022 parliamentary election campaign. The SAO found that the parties forming the opposition coalition received HUF 261.26 million of illegal funding from a legal entity in Hungary, the Everyone’s Hungary Movement (MMM), led by Péter Márki-Zay. In order to clarify the role of the additional HUF 1 412.26 million spent by the same movement in campaign financing, it was necessary to contact NTCA (National Tax and Customs Administration), so the SAO published a partial report until the NTCA investigations are completed.
In the audit due to its statutory obligation, the State Audit Office of Hungary examined whether the utilisation of the budget support was regular, whether the nominating organisations complied with the limitations on election campaign expenses, and whether they complied with the financing prohibitions on illegal funding. The SAO has prepared a separate partial report on the campaign expenditures of the six parties that ran in the elections on a common list.
As it is known, six parties – the Democratic Coalition (DK), the Movement for a Better Hungary (Jobbik), the Momentum Movement, the Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP), the LMP – Green Party of Hungary and the Dialogue for Hungary Party – have established a common list in the elections, with the participation of Péter Márki-Zay, President of Everyone’s Hungary Movement (MMM). Péter Márki‑Zay was the prime minister candidate of the six-party coalition.
During its audit, the SAO found that the six parties, their joint prime minister candidate and the Everyone’s Hungary Movement, in cooperation with the joint campaign council established for this purpose, led joint campaigns, held joint campaign events and used common posters, publications, leaflets and other campaign tools, as well as a common logo and uniform election slogans during the campaign. Therefore, the Everyone’s Hungary Movement provided in-kind asset contribution for the six-party coalition.
The partial report states that according to the Fundamental Law, everyone has a right to the freedom of expression and on this basis, anyone, individuals, associations, economic enterprises, and even the press can carry out activities that are capable of influencing voters’ will – and for this reason, this may qualify as campaign activity – at the same time, campaign activities carried out by external actors may not appear in a form and content discussed and coordinated with parties, in an institutionalised cooperation, financing explicitly the tools or events of political parties. In the case of MMM, this has been proven to have occurred.
During the audit, the SAO also examined other, non-party organisations, if there was any institutional cooperation, joint campaign activities with parties nominating candidates in the elections, but did not reveal the same institutional cooperation observed in the case of MMM and the six parties, the activities of these organisations did not go beyond the boundaries of freedom of expression.
Regarding HUF 1 412.26 million out of the HUF 1 673.52 million spent by MMM on financing campaign tools during the campaign period, the SAO made a request to the National Tax and Customs Administration (NTCA), as some questions have been raised about the authenticity of the economic events recorded in contracts and invoices, and the contacted Austrian resident economic enterprise did not provide any data for the SAO. The amount of in-kind asset contribution revealed by the SAO audit and not covered by the NTCA request that have been proven to be accepted by the parties during the joint campaign reached HUF 261.26 million. The SAO found that by accepting this amount from a legal entity, the parties received illegal funding.
During the procedure, the parties were able to comment on the draft report twice, as well as to express their opinion at a final meeting, their comments and the SAO’s replies to it are included in full in the partial report.
Under the provisions of the law, the amount of the illegal funding has to be paid to the central budget within 15 days upon the call of SAO, and at the same time, the party’s support from the central budget has to be reduced by the amount of the illegal funding. The parties are obliged to pay the established amount to the central budget in equal shares, since the parties carried out joint campaign activities, the financial contribution provided for them served the interests of the parties equally, and the parties aspiring to a parliamentary majority necessary to form a government are interested in not only their own successful election results, but have a mutual interest in the successful election outcome of the other parties appearing on the common list as well.
A separate report was prepared on the campaign spending of other nominating organisations not participating in the opposition coalition – Fidesz – Hungarian Civic Alliance, the Christian Democratic People’s Party (KDNP), the Hungarian Two-Tailed Dog Party (MKKP), the Solution Movement, the Our Homeland Movement (MHM) and the National Self-Government of Germans in Hungary. In the case of these organisations, the SAO did not establish illegal funding of parties.
The summary of the reports in English can be found on SAO’s website, while the full reports in Hungarian can be downloaded here.