In its verdicts of 18 March 2025, the Budapest-Capital Regional Court found that the Hungarian State Treasury acted lawfully on the basis of the audits conducted by the State Audit Office of Hungary (SAO) on the subject of party financing. The SAO, acting within the scope of its duties, lawfully carried out the audit.
In its report, the SAO found that the parties of the opposition coalition accepted HUF 261.26 million of illegal foreign funding from the ‘Mindenki Magyarországa Mozgalom’ (Everyone’s Hungary Movement, MMM).
The lawsuits against the Hungarian State Treasury, on which the verdicts are based, were filed by LMP – Hungary’s Green Party, the Dialogue – The Green’s Party, and Momentum Movement, requesting a judicial review of the report of the State Audit Office of Hungary.
As it is also clear by the publication issued by the Budapest-Capital Regional Court, the court found that the parties’ claims were without grounds and therefore dismissed them and ordered the plaintiffs to pay litigation costs and a procedural fee.
In its reasoning, the court pointed out that the SAO, acting within the scope of its duties, had carried out the audit lawfully.
The reasoning of the verdict analysed the SAO’s report in detail, concluding that the SAO’s detailed reasoning was factual and well-founded, and confirmed that MMM, led by the joint opposition coalition’s candidate for prime minister, had financed services directly related to the joint campaign of the six-party coalition. The court ruled that the SAO had been lawful in finding that the parties had received illegal in-kind asset contributions during the 2022 parliamentary election campaign.
The parties concerned are still attacking the SAO today because of the report that has just been assessed by the court, questioning the independence of the institution. A final verdict now confirms that the SAO acted entirely legally and SAO’s finding was based on the law, establishing that the parties concerned had used foreign funds illegally for their campaigns.