Newly-Elected Hungarian PM Says Orbán Was Paying CPAC, Calls It a ‘Crime’ That ‘Will Have to Be Investigated’

Screenshot via X.

Péter Magyar, the Hungarian Prime Minister-Elect, announced that outgoing Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s government had been paying CPAC, but he would put an immediate end to that — and even went so far as to call it a “crime” that needed to be investigated.

Orbán conceded Sunday after Magyar’s center-right opposition party defeated him in a landslide, ending a 16-year rule. Orbán was criticized for numerous authoritarian moves he made, especially those that restricted free speech, the press, and elections, but he won favor among the American right.

President Donald Trump issued multiple enthusiastic endorsements for Orbán, both Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio traveled to Hungary’s capital, Budapest, to campaign for him, and the Conservative Political Action Conference organized five of its events in Budapest and gave featured speaking slots to Orbàn and his allies multiple times over the years.

Before the election, the official CPAC account posted a tweet announcing the organization “stand[s] firmly” with Orbán and was cheering for him to win.

In a speech Magyar gave after he won, he addressed the issue of CPAC.

According to an English translation of Magyar’s remarks, he said that the Hungarian government “will not finance these things,” specifically mentioning CPAC and other right-wing institutions.

“I believe the state should never have financed them in the first place, it was a crime,” Magyar continued. “Mixing party financing with government spending from the state budget is, in my view, a criminal offense, and this will have to be investigated by the future authorities, including the National Office for the Recovery and Protection of Public Assets, since those budgetary funds were not meant to finance party events.”

“CPAC is welcome to come to Budapest, very welcome, but it should not be financed with Hungarian taxpayers’ money,” Magyar added, saying that Orbán and his party were free to fund it themselves if they wanted.

Several U.S. political commentators remarked on this revelation that Orbán’s government had been funding CPAC, including Reason reporter Billy Binion, who pointed out that meant that other American influencers and organizations may very well have been getting paid by the Hungarian government too, “which may explain why so many were shilling for one of the most corrupt politicians living today.”

A sampling of other reactions is below.

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