In the mid-1980s the Danube movement was working illegal and faced the violence of the ruling party, while at the same time the Communist Youth Alliance created the Youth Environmental Council which became a semi-obligatory umbrella for the other type of NGOs. The Council was hierarchically organized and hindered horizontal cooperation among the two types of groups. On the other hand the centralizing efforts of the Council led to the creation of the National Society of Conservationists in 1987. [REC 5, 1994, p. 289] At the moment the political changes neared the Council became more and more dissident and took position in the Danube issue as well. [REC 5, 1994, p. 289]
The entire 'green' movement in Hungary was a powerful force in the opposition against the communist party. The Danube dam plans became the symbol of the old way of policy making and during the summer of 1989 the reformers in the communist party used the issue as an example of the undemocratic way the party was ruling. Finally in October 1989 Parliament voted for the withdrawal of Hungary from the dam plans. [Fisher et al., 1992, p. 191]
During and after the political changes the NGO movement boomed, a lot of new groups were established, unfortunately a lot of 'quasi-foundations' appeared among them. [Siegel and Yancey, 1992, p. 30] A big discussion just after the changes and around the last elections in 1994 was about the creation of a 'green' political party. The Green Party which is established in 1990 was not able to present candidates for the May 1990 national elections, and none of the regional candidates were elected. [Fisher et al., 1992, p. 197] The election campaign of spring 1994 showed the strange transformation of this Green Party into an extreme rightist , fascist organization. The Hungarian environmental movement made a statement against it, signed by 190 groups throughout the country. [Milieukontakt, 1994, p. 11; REC 5, 1994, p. 289] By 1993 a new environmental political party, Green Alternative, was established backed by a few groups of the 'green' movement. [REC 5, 1994, p. 290] But, as in the past, most of the movement did not join this political party. Green Alternative succeeded in getting some influence in the local politics in the south of Hungary.
A main point of interest for the Hungarian 'green' movement is establishing internal cooperation. National NGO gatherings are organized to bring environmental activists together and the formation of networks is worked at. [Milieukontakt, 1994, p. 11] Until now the movement did not succeed in building strong alliances or for example successful joint lobby projects. Milieukontakt's special project 'Environmental Policy and NGO Involvement' is focused on establishing the latter for the near future. [Milieukontakt, 1994, p. 30-32]
The main Hungarian NGOs at this moment can be divided into roughly three categories. First the already long existing nature conservation organizations form still a big part of the environmental movement in Hungary. The umbrella organization 'National Society of Conservationists' represents a lot of local nature conservation groups and a river NGO from the next category as well. Ornithological organizations also belong to the first category of Hungarian environmental NGOs. Examples of this type of groups are: National Society of Conservationists, Hungarian Ornithological and Nature Conservation Society and Hungarian Nature Friends' Society. A second category of Hungarian environmental NGOs is a group of river NGOs, dealing with whole river basins. The current Danube movement is included in this category. Examples of NGOs are Duna Kör, Ipoly Union and Tisza Klub. The third category contains the NGOs focusing on direct activism, those groups are developing campaigning groups. Until now mostly working on local and/or national level. Examples of such organizations are REFLEX, Energy Klub and Göncöl foundation.