András László is a member of the European Parliament for the Hungarian Fidesz party and serves as a government commissioner tasked with investigating foreign funding for political activities in Hungary. A firm defender of national sovereignty, child protection, and the Christian identity of Europe, he has become a leading voice in the conservative resistance to the expanding power of EU institutions.
Last week, he attended CPAC Hungary 2025 in Budapest, where conservative leaders from across the world gathered to reaffirm their commitment to a Europe of free nations. In this exclusive interview, László exposes foreign interference, defends his government’s border and family policies, and calls on international allies to unite to protect fundamental values.
Hungary is often portrayed as isolated on the international stage. How does that align with what we see here at CPAC, with so many international allies?
That’s one of the many smear campaigns launched against Hungary simply because we are a patriotic and conservative country, and we have a government that acts accordingly. The claim that we’re isolated is entirely false. Just look at this CPAC Hungary event; beyond that, our diplomatic agenda is incredibly active. Unlike many European institutions, we do not have poor relations with China, Russia, or the United States. Our foreign policy is pragmatic: we want good relations with all major economic and political centers in the world because, as a European country, we lack natural resources and are not self-sufficient in critical materials, energy, or advanced technologies.
It would be in the EU’s best interest to adopt a similar approach—but that’s not happening. The European Parliament, in particular, has taken a purely ideological stance on international relations. They fully aligned with the Biden administration, and now, with Trump’s return, they’re trying to distance themselves from the only real ally the EU has had. They want to cut all ties with Russia without even sitting at the negotiating table. They are imposing tariffs on China, even though our automotive industry heavily depends on the Chinese market. It’s all ideology—no rationality, no common sense—and it runs against Europe’s core interests.
Hungary is again under attack for two pieces of legislation—one to protect children and another to safeguard sovereignty against foreign interference. How would you explain these laws to someone unfamiliar with the Central European context?
In Central Europe, we can see the future before others. Political and ideological trends from Western Europe and the U.S. arrive here later. That gives us time to observe the consequences. Back in 2015, we saw the effects of mass immigration and decided to build a border fence to defend our country. We’ve done the same with gender ideology—we saw how it was destroying families, harming children, and dismantling social cohesion in the U.S., the UK, and Western Europe, so we stopped it before it took root here. We also prevented movements like BLM from entering Hungary because they’re not part of our culture. These are not our problems—they’re the problems of Western elites trying to impose an alien ideology on us.
What we couldn’t prevent was foreign interference in our 2022 elections. Massive sums of money came from the U.S. and the EU to support left-wing media outlets and activist NGOs masquerading as civil society. These are not independent organizations. They’re not even truly “non-governmental,” since they rely on public money from foreign governments. That’s why we passed the Sovereignty Protection Act. We’re preparing a new law to prevent foreign funding of activist networks ahead of the 2026 elections. What is the EU doing? Demanding that we repeal both laws. Why? Because they were the ones interfering in the first place. They want to keep funding these networks and maintaining their influence in Hungarian politics. It’s that simple.
As Mr. Szánthó, director general of the Center for Fundamental Rights, pointed out in his speech, Hungary currently pays one million euros daily to protect its borders. At the same time, some EU member states are pushing to keep your funds frozen. Is Hungary capable of sustaining these pressures?
I see those million euros a day as an investment in our security. We’ve spent over two billion euros building a border fence that doesn’t just protect Hungary but the Schengen Area as a whole. In 2023, the European Court of Justice imposed a €200 million fine on us and an additional €1 million daily until we change our laws to allow illegal migrants into Hungary. But we’re not going to let that happen. We don’t accept economic migrants who pass through multiple safe countries. The Geneva Convention clearly states that the right to asylum applies only in the first safe country. What Europe is doing now—encouraging migrants to pick and choose their destination—is a violation of international law.
When the war in Ukraine started, we opened our borders unconditionally to Ukrainian refugees, because we are their first safe country. That is consistent with international law. But we will not bow to EU pressure to accept illegal economic migrants. And although we’re paying a high price now, I believe history will judge this Commission and the pro-migration politicians harshly. Until that day comes, we will continue defending our borders and citizens.
Defending your borders and resisting Brussels both seem like ways to preserve sovereignty. How can your international allies help protect Hungary and other countries’ sovereignty?
The best way they can help is by doing the same in their countries. Suppose other governments secure their borders, protect children from gender ideology, ban that ideology from schools and women’s sports, and strengthen parental rights. In that case, we won’t be the only target anymore. The pressure will be shared. And if we achieve a conservative majority in Europe, we can restore common-sense policies on migration, child protection, and national sovereignty. The key is for each country to defend itself. If we all do that, we become stronger together.
What about the USAID funding? Now that Brussels is trying to step in?
I serve as the government commissioner tasked with investigating political projects in Hungary funded by USAID. What the new Trump administration is doing—cutting off funding to USAID and reviewing these activities—is highly positive. Americans use these agencies to promote their global ideological agenda. That system was corrupt, opaque, and dishonest. I hope they dare to see the cleanup through, because what they did with taxpayer money abroad and at home was unacceptable.
As to Brussels: in the European Parliament, we are demanding greater transparency. We’ve filed many requests to obtain data on how EU money was distributed to NGOs in recent years. Between 2019 and 2023 alone, there were over 37,000 contracts worth €17 billion. We want to know where that money went. We want to see the contracts, the reports, and what these organizations did with the funds. These networks were used to outsource censorship, just like the Democrats did in the U.S. with social media platforms. Now that companies like Facebook and X no longer automatically censor content in the U.S., the EU is forcing them to keep doing it here. So they stop censoring Americans, but continue to censor Europeans? We’re going to fight that.
The first step is to expose these shady networks. The next is to talk about it publicly so people become aware of what’s happening. Finally, it is to help citizens raise their voices in protest.
