Hungary pastor's charity struggles after govt cuts

As winter approaches and the coronavirus pandemic engulfs Hungary, one of the country's largest charity organizations is struggling to stay afloat after the government unexpectedly slashed the funding of institutions offering assistance to the most destitute.

In a spotless homeless shelter converted from the backyard of adjoining buildings in the Hungarian capital's scruffy eighth district, Pastor Gabor Ivanyi is greeted with reverential smiles and warm words by both staff and inhabitants. Ivanyi is an iconic figure, both in appearance and in the Hungarian religious landscape.

Sporting a white biblical beard, the reverend is the president of the Hungarian Evangelical Fellowship, a small Methodist offshoot that operates a dizzying array of institutions aimed at helping the needy.

Ranging from kindergartens to high schools and colleges, hospitals, homeless shelters, nursing homes and temporary homes for families, Ivanyi oversees an empire built for the destitute.

The government's announcement in late August that it will halve and then completely withdraw from 2021 supplementary state funding from the schools operated by the Hungarian Evangelical Fellowship came as a blow to Ivanyi, whose organizations have already amassed immense debts over the years.

The reverend believes the move is part of Prime Minister Viktor Orban's personal crusade against him.

"The sword of Damocles hangs over our head all the time. When will it fall? I do not know," Ivanyi told The Associated Press.

Although Ivanyi used to be on good terms with Orban – he even officiated at his wedding ceremony and baptized two of his children - the pastor has become an ardent critic of the premier's nationalistic and autocratic regime, which he claims is stripping the most vulnerable of their rights and livelihood.

The institutions operated by the Evangelical Fellowship and the Oltalom charity organization (chaired by Ivanyi) help some 10,000 children and adults across the country and indirectly assist more than 30,000 Hungarians.

Opposition parties, other religious and secular organizations and scores of private individuals pitched in with donations when the state-run National Utilities threatened to suspend natural gas services at these institutions in September.

The Fellowship's financial woes began in 2011, a year after Orban's re-election as prime minister. Parliament passed a new law that stripped the Fellowship of its church-status, thereby starving it of state funding.

Although the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg ruled the decision unlawful, the church's status has never been restored.

Nearly a decade later, Ivanyi is still fighting to keep the network of institutions up and running but feels the ground shifting beneath his feet.

Once a young liberal politician, Orban has gradually transitioned to a conventional conservative and then to an authoritarian radical, whose government has impaired judicial independence and press freedom over the past decade.

The Ministry of Human Capacities, which is in charge of the nation's health care and education systems, slashed all funding in excess of the so-called normative (basic) financial support for two of the country's leading organizations running integrative schools in the poorest areas of Hungary.

Besides the schools operated by Ivanyi's church, educational institutions run by the Igazgyöngy (Real Pearl) Foundation will also see this state support dwindle this year and vanish from 2021.

The ministry blamed the shortage of budgetary funds due to the coronavirus epidemic and the alleged lack of concrete results achieved by these schools.

The government is committed to ensuring quality education to all Hungarian children and it will use the funds taken away from the two institutions to purchase IT equipment for underprivileged children, the Ministry told The Associated Press.

At the same time, Iványi argues that most of their students come from extreme poverty and the support provided by their schools in the form of meals, clothing, and family care is critical for these children.

(Image Credit: AP)