Tisza Party to reform Hungarian subsidies and asset recovery

The Tisza Party government plans to reform the system of Hungarian subsidies for citizens living abroad. György Heidl, State Secretary for Social Relations and Culture, announced that the government will make the Bethlen Gábor Fund's previously undisclosed database public. This database will detail who received funding, when, and in which regions. Heidl criticized the previous system for being overly dependent on personal connections, describing it as a “feudal system” where individual requests to ministers often bypassed transparent application processes.

To address this, the government aims to reduce the proportion of individual, discretionary grants—which previously rose from 10–15% to 20%—and increase the share of funds distributed through competitive, transparent application processes. This shift is intended to allow organizations without personal political ties to access support.

Simultaneously, efforts are underway regarding asset recovery in Hungary. Transparency International Hungary has proposed models for the National Asset Recovery and Asset Protection Office to address the economic structure formed over the last 16 years, where a significant portion of public funds may not have served the public interest. The organization suggests that in certain suspicious cases, the burden of proof should shift to the individual to demonstrate the legitimacy of their assets. Candidates such as Miklós Ligeti are among those vying for leadership positions within the new asset recovery framework.