“We are pursuing a number of options for future funding and, as we have stated a number of times, this is far from the end of our organization and its intellectual project,” he said.
Since it arrived in Belgium four years ago, MCC Brussels has established itself as a leading voice on the European right, co-hosting events with the far-right Patriots group on topics such as gender, migration and election interference, as well as spearheading a push to cut EU cash for NGOs.
Hungary’s new Prime Minister Péter Magyar promised on the election campaign trail earlier this year to end the government’s cozy relationship with conservative think tanks, and clamp down on state funding to the network of right-wing groups that flourished under his predecessor, Viktor Orbán. Magyar name-checked MCC, calling its funding structure a “criminal offense.”
MCC Hungary, an educational institute with strong ties to Orbán’s Fidesz party, benefited from a massive transfer of state assets under his premiership.
According to a 2025 transparency register filing, the Brussels outpost received more than 99 percent of its funds from MCC Hungary.
“It is deeply worrying to see a government that appears unable to withstand the existence of an intellectual counterweight within civil society,” O’Brien said.