Orbán’s favorite Brussels think tank may be down, but it’s not out

BRUSSELS ― The populist Brussels think tank beloved by Viktor Orbán faces a fight for survival after incoming Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar vowed to cut funding — but its work will continue, its leaders say.

The organization is braced to weather the political pressure, supporters and detractors of MCC Brussels told POLITICO, with alternative funding avenues, potential legal recourse and continued demand for its conservative Euroskeptic agenda expected to sustain it.

“Without a doubt, they’ll try and shut it down,” Frank Furedi, its executive director, said at an MCC Brussels event two days after Hungary’s Sunday election, which saw Orbán lose power after 16 years as Budapest’s premier. But “I’m fairly certain that if we put our minds together, we can make sure that our existence will continue no matter what the Magyar government is trying to do.”

Armed with a strong parliamentary majority, Magyar — whose new administration is eyeing a reset of its relationship with Brussels — has promised to decimate the previous government’s cozy relationship with conservative think tanks, and clamp down on state funding to the network of right-wing groups that flourished under his predecessor. This includes MCC Brussels’ parent organization, Mathias Corvinus Collegium, the Budapest-based educational institution controlled by close political allies of Orbán.

“The state is not going to finance CPAC [Conservative Political Action Conference] events, or Mathias Corvinus Collegium institutions … I think this was a criminal offense, party financing mixed up with government expenditures,” Magyar said on Monday. “The future authorities will have to examine or investigate.”

MCC Brussels — seen by many in the city as a mouthpiece of Orbán’s government, although it maintains it is politically independent — is one of the EU’s loudest and most controversial detractors. Its survival would represent the resilience of Orbán’s values within the heart of the EU.

Frank Furedi, who is now MCC Brussels executive director and believes the organization will continue despite the change of government, speaking at a Conservative Political Action Conference in Budapest in May 2022. | Tibor Illyes/EPA

Since its founding four years ago, the think tank established itself as a leading voice on the European right, co-hosting events with the far-right Patriots group on gender, migration and election interference and spearheading a push to cut EU cash for NGOs, chalking up a win earlier this year when the European Commission slashed funding for pro-European think tanks.

Those groups don’t see the think tank leaving quietly.

“I don’t see them disappearing from the Brussels scene,” said Petros Fassoulas, secretary general at the European Movement International, a pro-European think tank. “They see themselves as part of this wider movement, both intellectual and political.”

“There’s also a market for what they’re promoting. I might not agree with that agenda but I think there is a market, both in Brussels and also across Europe,” Fassoulas said.

The funding question

For its part, MCC Brussels said that Sunday’s election result will have no bearing on its work in the city.

“As an independent organization, we will continue to research, analyze and advocate around our core concerns, and continue to hold the European Union institutions to account,” its communications manager John O’Brien said. Orbán’s defeat was “naturally a significant setback,” he acknowledged.

MCC Brussels gets almost all of its cash — 99 percent, coming to just over €6 million, according to its listing for the last financial year in the EU’s Transparency Register — as part of a grant from Mathias Corvinus Collegium, which received a 10 percent stake in Hungary’s lucrative oil and gas company MOL from Orbán’s government in 2020.

MCC Brussels has enough funding to keep it going for the next couple of years, one person who works at a think tank with knowledge of Mathias Corvinus Collegium said.

The educational institution could also plan court actions if Magyar’s party Tisza moves against them, which could buy them up to three years, the person said.

Márta Pardavi, co-chair of the Budapest-based human rights NGO the Hungarian Helsinki Committee, said closing down the think tank, or removing its funding, is easier said than done. “It’s not impossible, but it will be a lot of potential litigation around this.”

Appetite for its agenda

Even if that cash does dry up, many working in the same field believe MCC Brussels would be able to pick up funding from other sympathetic benefactors — or get replaced by like-minded groups.

Earlier this year, U.S. government officials traveled to European cities, including Brussels, to scout out MAGA-aligned think tanks it could fund.

Hungary’s Prime Minister-elect Péter Magyar, who has pledged to crack down on state funding of right-wing groups, in Budapest after his election win on April 12. | Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto via Getty Images

“If Magyar shuts them down, I definitely think that other forces will take its place,” said one person working in the NGO space who was granted anonymity to speak freely, as they aren’t authorized to speak publicly on industry matters. “Unfortunately, there is still very much an effort to fund anti-EU anti-equality organizations from foreign actors outside the EU.”

And it’s unlikely that it will be cowed by Sunday’s result. “I don’t expect them to turn down the rhetoric,” EMI’s Fassoulas said.

Indeed, at an election post-mortem at a swanky private members club hosted by the group, the think tank’s leadership was undeterred.

MCC Brussels has made it clear it considers itself part of a wider international movement, and Furedi said the think tank will just have to find some “creative ways” of dealing with the threat of closure.

“We look forward to continuing to work with our friends and comrades across the continent,” O’Brien said. “Closing down MCC Brussels is easier said than done.”

Mari Eccles reported from Brussels and Max Griera reported from Budapest. Jamie Detter also contributed reporting.