The opposition Democratic Coalition (DK) on Saturday said that the National Audit Office (ÁSZ) was “threatening” to strip the party of its funding, “possibly for years”. László Sebián-Petrovszki, the party’s director, told an online press conference that ÁSZ was requesting documents which had been destroyed in a fire at the party headquarters in 2018, papers of which said the body already had copies. Sebián-Petrovszki noted that the government had cut all parties’ funding by half citing the novel coronavirus epidemic. ÁSZ is now “doubling the punishment”, he said. Sebián-Petrovszki insisted that the government was using the epidemic as a pretext to strip the largest opposition party of its funding. In response, ÁSZ said that the review of DK’s financial activities in 2017-2018 was in line with all regulations. The party director’s statement is “additional proof that the rule of law is functional” in Hungary, the statement said.