“We are exploring various avenues for future funding and, as we have mentioned numerous times, this is far from the conclusion of our organization and its intellectual endeavor,” he stated.
Since arriving in Belgium four years ago, MCC Brussels has positioned itself as a prominent voice on the European right, collaborating with the far-right Patriots group on issues like gender, migration, and election interference, and leading efforts to reduce EU funding for NGOs.
Hungary’s new Prime Minister Péter Magyar pledged during the election campaign earlier this year to end the government’s close ties with conservative think tanks and to cut state funding to the network of right-wing groups that thrived under his predecessor, Viktor Orbán. Magyar cited MCC, labeling its funding structure a “criminal offense.”
MCC Hungary, an educational institute closely linked to Orbán’s Fidesz party, gained from a large transfer of state assets during his leadership.
According to a 2025 transparency register filing, the Brussels branch received over 99 percent of its funds from MCC Hungary.
“It is deeply concerning to witness a government seemingly unable to tolerate the presence of an intellectual counterbalance within civil society,” O’Brien remarked.
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