From the 2026 Budget Audit
Three former presidents get 73 million Ft each — to give away as they see fit.
Schmitt Pál, Áder János, and Novák Katalin each hold a 73 million Ft public donation budget annually — long after leaving office — funded by every taxpayer.
219 million Ft total — roughly 54 Ft per household per year — so that three named individuals can perform philanthropy at public expense.
What you see — and what you don't
The seen: the recipient organisations three former officials choose to support. The unseen: a worker on the 561,000 Ft median monthly wage contributing to a fund that exists so that three individuals — already receiving a presidential pension separately — can donate to causes of their own selection, at no personal cost.
Objection
"Former presidents carry symbolic weight; their endorsement of causes adds value beyond the money."
Answer
Symbolic weight is the officeholder's to give — at their own expense. There is no calculation by which the state identifies the right set of causes for a former head of state to endorse; every avenue of private charitable giving remains open to them. The public interest in state-funded post-office philanthropy is nil.
Pass this on to anyone who thinks a presidential pension should be enough.
The analyst's verdict
Public-Purpose Offerings and Donations of Former Presidents of the Republic
Rationale
Strip the euphemism and the line reads: a statutory entitlement to discretionary public-donation budgets for living former heads of state. Each former president receives 73.0 millió Ft of public money annually to direct to charitable recipients of their own selection. The mechanism is identical to the Speaker's donation line and the objection is identical: it is a subjective allocation by a political officeholder — here, three of them, after they have left office. The seen is a set of grateful recipient organisations and three former presidents able to perform philanthropy at no personal cost. The unseen is every taxpayer funding it: a worker on the roughly 561,000 Ft median monthly gross wage[^4] contributes to a pool that exists so that three named individuals can make donations the worker has no say over, to causes the worker may or may not share, while the worker's own capacity to give to causes they do care about is correspondingly reduced by the tax that funds the pool. A former head of state who wishes to support charitable causes enjoys every means of doing so available to any other citizen of means, including a presidential pension already provided separately. There is no rights-protection function here, no constitutional precondition, no irreversible harm being guarded against.
Transition mechanism
Delete all three sub-lines in the 2026 cycle. The presidential pension and statutory post-office provision are separate matters and are not addressed by this cut.
Affected groups
Three former presidents lose a discretionary donation budget. Recipient organisations lose a funding stream they can replace through ordinary voluntary fundraising.
Szabad Társadalom Intézet
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