One of the most controversial aspects of the new U.S. leadership under Donald Trump is the plan to cut unnecessary spending by hundreds of billions, which is being carried out by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) led by Elon Musk. The idea is supported by a very simple logic: If the economy is in bad shape, it would be a good idea to first look at where the money is going and not spend American taxpayer dollars on, for example, Hungarian media outlets.
Documents show that the Biden administration sent money to various Hungarian media outlets that repeatedly published articles that portrayed the Paks II investment, Hungary’s major nuclear energy investment, in a bad light.
“These platforms and the organizations behind them took advantage of the fact that it is difficult for the average person to access reliable information in the field of nuclear energy, where it is not easy to see clearly in the tangle of interests and counter-interests,” said nuclear energy expert Zsolt Hárfás while speaking to Hungarian news outlet Magyar Nemzet. According to Hárfás, the owner of the Atombiztos.org website that focuses on the topic of nuclear energy, it is clear that the media platforms in question typically claim to be independent.
The U.S. Embassy in Budapest’s media support tender went to well-known opposition media outlets such as 444, G7, Klubrádió, Magyar Hang, Greenfo, and Átlátszó. By withdrawing support for these platforms — more precisely, by suspending the allocation of the amounts won in the tender for the time being — the new US administration is now saving a total of 173 million forints.
“The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) also used American taxpayers’ money to gain political and economic influence around the world. The supported organizations – among other things – massively attacked the Hungarian government’s policy on nuclear energy and the Paks II project,” said Zsolt Hárfás, before starting to list specific examples.
“The right to determine the energy mix is a sovereign national competence, and Hungary is building a new nuclear power plant in this spirit. However, the investment has been attacked for years by Átlátszó.hu, which, according to its official financial report, received the most funding from the American National Endowment for Democracy in 2023 and the years before that. In addition, they also received financial resources from the US Embassy in Budapest,” explained the expert.
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“In recent years, false information has continuously appeared on (the Hungarian version of) Radio Free Europe using American taxpayer money to question the necessity of the Paks II project and about Rosatom, which supplies the technology. Radio Free Europe also followed the American narrative that casts doubt on the performance and reliability of the currently world-leading Russian nuclear energy industry, while sympathizing with the American nuclear energy industry, which has been at a competitive disadvantage for years, or rather decades,” said the expert, who has previously dealt with untruths published on the news site
Speaking of misleading readers, Zsolt Hárfás, who has also lost embassy support and has now switched to Greenfora, draws attention to the anti-Paks II writings of Bence Tordai, the leader of the Párbeszéd.
“For example, in his latest opinion article, the politician pointed out that the Hungarian authorities did not help to solve the problem of reducing the temperature of the water cooling the old and new nuclear power plant units before it is returned to the Danube. It is a fact that the river’s wildlife needs to be protected from excessively warm cooling water, and accordingly, so-called supercooling devices will be built to ensure that the temperature of the returned water remains below the limit value. This is no secret, and numerous articles have been published about it,” Hárfás pointed out. He noted that “the devices are even featured on the visual design illustrating the cooling system are featured in opinion article itself.”
And the list is not over yet.
The podcast also noted that Nyugati Pályán also operated with embassy support. The not-so-well-known entity (it has published 22 episodes since 2022) has spent a larger amount of money, totaling 140 million forints, on advertisements so far, according to Facebook’s ad library data.
“The German Grassroots Foundation supported the Atomcsapda blog posts that stated obvious untruths about nuclear energy. And the Paksi Riot team attacking the Paks II project was funded by George Soros’ organization, the Open Society Institute,” continued Hárfás. He then recalled that the Austrian Federal Ministry for Sustainability and Tourism supported the Energiaklub’s anti-nuclear activities for years in order to initiate various legal proceedings against Paks II.
This was included in their 2019 financial report, but the civil organization has since received a grant from Austria, apparently even in 2023, explained the expert. In closing, he emphasized that, in his opinion, Hungary must continue to use all means to protect the construction of the two new Paks blocks, which serve the interests of the nation, as it is clear from the above that the project has been and is currently being attacked in numerous ways.
