Ungheria. Le elezioni del 18 aprile. Orban ed ungheresi contro Soros.

Giuseppe Sandro Mela.

2018-02-14.

Le prossime elezioni politiche che si terranno in Ungheria avranno un valore particolare sia per gli ungheresi sia per tutta l’Unione Europea. La posta in gioco è davvero grande.

Si scontrano da una parte la concezione di uno Stato Europeo, retto dal duopolio franco – tedesco, fortemente liberal, con la concezione di Unione Europea quale unione economica degli stati, che preservano la loro propria sovranità.

La prima concezione fa parte integrante della Weltanschauung predicata ed attuata da Mr Soros, tramite le sue molteplici organizzazioni non governative.

L’Ungheria ha varato una serie di leggi che regolamentano l’operato delle ngo che ricevono finanziamenti esteri e, sostanzialmente, non le gradisce sul proprio territorio, per il semplice motivo che svolgono un’attiva propaganda contro la propria patria.

Significative le posizioni prese da Mr Orban.

V4 Report. Viktor Orban responds: The government doesn’t let in migrants, only refugees

«The government doesn’t let in migrants, only refugees.»

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«The Hungarian government never accepted the European Union’s rules on migrant quotas, and therefore “no one can demand themselves any rights based on those” in Hungary, the prime minister stressed»

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«Currently, there are 491 asylum seekers in the country»

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«Hungary never said they would reject every asylum seeker. In fact, they were quite public a few months ago about offering an Iraqi Christian protection after it was alleged that Sweden was about to deport her.»

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«Hungary, and not Brussels, will decide who and how many they accept»

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«Viktor Orban has been rock solid regarding migration. He was a lonely voice early on when he first challenged Angela Merkel regarding migration. Today, thanks in large part to Orban and Hungary, the entire debate on migration has changed inside of Europe»

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«The growing mainstream rebellion that has risen in defiance of Angela Merkel and the EU would not be where it is today without the initial courage of Viktor Orban and the citizens of Hungary to challenge the Eurocrats in Brussels»

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«the Open Society Foundations’ George Soros “gives a bunch of money to those who organize migration. Our three-point migration proposal will create a new situation. Everyone, including George Soros, must decide whether to cease or continue organizing and financing illegal migration, but the law applies to everyone.»

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«Civil organization, but more so the fake civil organization, must submit declarations that we will scrutinize with a magnifying glass. We will tax them»

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Il Financial Times aveva considerato questi problemi, ovviamente dalla sua ottica liberal.

Orban calls for Hungarian spy agencies to probe ‘Soros empire’ of NGOs

«By employing the national security services, the Soros network that strives to influence European life should be exposed, …. Another question is who are these Hungarians who are participating in this process from here, within Hungary?»

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«Soros network includes NGOs, journalists, EU officials and MPs, both inside Hungary and abroad.»

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Soros furibondo attacca Orban e l’Ungheria: sono degli ingrati.

«Quel misconoscente di Mr Orban e gran parte del popolo ungherese hanno declinato cortesemente l’offerta fatta da Mr Soros, ed è stata varata una legge in ossequio alla quale le ogn a capitale straniero debbano essere registrate in Ungheria, allegando una regolare denuncia delle entrate. Nelle prospezioni ad oggi mr Orban raccoglierebbe il 48% dei voti, ma si sa che il popolo bue si fa facilmente ingannare: per fortuna Mr Soros vede e provvede»

«È comprensibile il risentimento che ha provato Mr Soros di fronte a simile ingratitudine. Se Mr Orban e gli ungheresi non accettavano le offerte caritative e filantropiche con le buone, le avrebbero allora dovute accettare con le cattive.»

Juncker and Soros hold Brussels meeting to plot legal action against Hungarian government

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Questa è la posta in gioco con queste elezioni ungheresi.

Ma molte cose stanno cambiando a livello mondiale.

Soros finanzia la campagna anti-Brexit. Inglesi irritati.

Trump attacca frontalmente Mr Soros come un toro infuriato.

Tribunale norvegese condanna e bacchetta le ngo di Mr Soros.

Le persone democratiche si staranno domandando che forse il problema se lo dovrebbero risolvere gli ungheresi, senza interferenze esterne, ma si sa anche come stia andando il mondo.

Queste sono le prospezioni elettorali.

Il Fidesz, il partito di Mr Orban, dovrebbe essere non solo il partito di maggioranza, ma potrebbe anche conseguire la maggioranza assoluta.

Sarà ben difficile dire che il risultato di libere elezioni sia antidemocratico.

Fatto si è che la società civile ungherese, ossia quella che si esprime nelle urne, di Soros e delle sue ngo (ong) non ne vuole proprio più sapere. 

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→ Hungary Journal. 2017-12-01. Soros finances NGOs outside Budapest to fight Orban

George Soros’s Open Society Foundation is planning to assist civil groups in the provinces with “several hundred thousand” US dollars as part of the billionaire’s new strategy to “counter attacks by the Hungarian government”, portal abcug.hu reported on Thursday.

The portal said the campaign aimed to “present Soros as a philantropist, get closer to the people and gain popularity”.

Csaba Csontos, recently appointed spokesman for the foundation, told the portal that the foundation was planning to open new offices in Pecs, in southern Hungary, and in Debrecen in the east.

Csontos said that the funds would be dedicated to financing housing, education, health and poverty-related projects through two local organisations in the two cities.

“This is not only about contributing money but about building communities; the two new offices will function as community centres where local activists can promote initiatives in the area,”

he said. He added that the aim was to support small projects with no more than 12,000 dollars each.

Speaking about problems in Hungary’s provinces, Csontos said that apart from poverty the largest issue was the disintegration of local communities, about which now “there is no dialogue or confidence”.

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“We want to see local communities managing issues; if somebody is in need of wood … people living in the neighbourhood should cooperate and help needy seniors,”

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he said.

Abcug.hu noted that the Open Society has so far been known in Hungary for their support to civil groups providing legal advice and said that “the government has attacked them from that side, too.” 

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→ Vice Nes. 2019-01-19. Hungary’s anti-Soros campaign now includes anti-immigration bills.

Hungary’s right-wing Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has ramped up his campaign of character assassination against George Soros, unveiling a new bundle of tough anti-immigration laws dedicated to “stopping” the liberal billionaire.

Orbán has made attacks on the Hungarian-born American financier, who has used his fortune to promote liberal values and open societies in Eastern Europe, a central part of his political platform, branding him a “public enemy.” Now Orban’s Fidesz party is escalating the longstanding one-way feud in a bid to appeal to its base ahead of elections on April 8, analysts say.

The latest broadside against 87-year-old Soros is the unveiling Thursday of details of three proposed immigration laws, branded the “Stop Soros package” by the government, which could be voted in as early as next month.

“It has been a central part of Fidesz’s campaign, and has largely been successful because most Hungarians are anti-immigration,” Gergely Rajnai, of Hungary’s Center for Fair Political Analysis, told VICE News.

The new laws would allow the government to register, penalize, and ban those it deems to be supporting illegal immigration. Foreign-funded NGOs seen to be supporting the “illegal entry, transfer, or stay” of asylum seekers would face a 25 percent tax on foreign donations – to be put to the defense of Hungary’s borders – while activists engaged in such work could be banned from border areas, and foreigners deported. Pro-government media reported that the bills could even result in Soros, who holds both U.S. and Hungarian citizenship, being banned from the country.

Hungary’s government accuses Soros of being the mastermind of a plan to flood Europe with hundreds of thousands of immigrants each year. Its campaign against him has included laws cracking down on NGOs he backs and a Budapest university he founded, and a “national consultation” campaign, in which surveys were sent to Hungarian voters asking if they agreed with Soros’s liberal politics. The government has also run anti-migrant billboards depicting the billionaire’s face, imploring citizens: “Don’t let Soros have the last laugh.”

Government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs accused the financier once again in a radio interview Thursday of undermining Europe’s future through support for open borders. “It is a political programme in which migrant-assisting groups disguised as human rights organisations take part,” he said.

Soros has previously characterized Hungary’s campaign against him as “distortions and lies” intended to build him up as an external target to rail against for political gain.

Orbán’s Fidesz party is expected to win easily in April, but he has been campaigning strongly on the issue of migration in a bid to ward off the growing challenge from the even more right-wing Jobbik party, polling in second place.

“Soros is an easy target,” Rajnai told VICE News. “For Orbán, but more importantly, for a lot of Hungarian voters, Soros represents external influence on domestic issues.”

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→ The Globe Post. 2019-01-15. Hungarian Cities Join Orban’s Fight Against Foreign-Funded Groups

Major cities throughout Hungary are publicly condemning foreign-funded NGOs as a regional response to the Hungarian government’s current march towards illiberalism, joining the crusade of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán against Hungarian-born billionaire George Soros.

Since December, municipal leaders of Kaposvár, Debrecen, Miskolc, and Pécs have been targeting human rights organizations on the grounds of receiving financial aid from abroad, especially those supported by Mr. Soros.

“The mayor Zsolt Páva warned people about a local Soros-funded organization who will join the election campaign and bring migrants and refugees to the city,” said András Nyirati, director of ‘With the Power of Humanity’ Foundation in the southern city of Pécs. Here, the municipal council recently issued a statement calling out its citizens to bar any local organizations from their premises which are connected to the Soros-founded Open Society Foundation (OSF), one of the world’s largest foundation promoting rights and freedoms. The OSF has been supporting people in need across the globe including Hungary where they are active since 1984.

“They were very careful not mentioning our name directly, but they certainly talk about us,” Mr. Nyirati told The Globe Post as “With the Power of Humanity” was the only NGO in the region who received funds from the OSF at the time of the statement. “With the Power of Humanity” Foundation has been working for more than 10 years supporting children in deep poverty and educating citizens on human rights and democracy in the region. They received recently an annual budget of $500,000 from the OSF to empower and finance the work of other NGOs and civil group in the South-Western part of the country.

The foundation declares on their website to be an independent, autonomous organization, which does not interfere with local or regional policymaking. Therefore, labeling them as “Soros campaign office” or “Migrant Center” is not only false, says Mr. Nyirati, but seriously misleading and hinders their work. After the statement came out, the owner of the premise they were about to move their new office into withdrew from the lease agreement. The organization invited the mayor several times to showcase him their work and assure they only support local people, but Mr. Páva declined.

The Globe Post also reached out to Mr. Páva and the municipality of Pécs for comment but hasn’t got any response.

“Like a dog with a bone, the Hungarian government is not willing to let go of this opportunity to artificially connect foreign-funded but locally working NGOs with the migration crisis,” Csaba Csontos, Hungarian spokesperson of the Open Society Foundation, told The Globe Post. With the upcoming elections, creating fear, stigmatizing actual people and organizations fighting for human rights and alienating them from their communities go along perfectly with the government’s current anti-refugee and anti-Soros narrative, he explained.

In a statement, the OSF compared the situation to the darkest times of Hungarian history and highlighted “the statement of the municipality of Pécs is an open violation of the constitutional right to freedom of expression and association.”

Mr. Orbán, alongside with state and pro-government media, has been pouring its energy into a campaign against Mr. Soros and his foundation for more than a year now. The government installed series of giant EU-blue billboards with the face of Mr. Soros over the country, claiming his liberal support on policies regarding asylum seekers will “Islamise Christian Europe” and destabilize Hungary.

Last April, Mr. Orbán and his ruling Fidesz party also passed a higher education law designed to shut down the Budapest-based Central European University, also founded by Mr. Soros.

“We are not as big and powerful as you are and as big and powerful as George Soros — the American financial speculator attacking Hungary, who has destroyed the lives of millions of Europeans with his financial speculations, who has been fined for speculation in Hungary, and who is an open enemy of the euro,” Mr. Orbán said when the European Commission questioned his actions in Brussels.

After this, the government passed a law in June last year aimed at foreign-funded NGOs forcing them to register with a court, and state the origin of their fundings on their website and official publications. It applies to all NGOs and other civil groups receiving more than €24,000 ($29,000) a year. An international uproar followed immediately. But the European Commission only took legal actions in October against Hungary over these restrictions. The case against the Central European University was only referred to the European Court of Justice in December.

“Initially, we received several threats online such as we should be deported to Africa or my daughters will definitely be raped by migrants on the street,” Mr. Nyitrai said. But later, messages of solidarity poured in, and the ‘With the Power of Humanity’ Foundation has already found a new place for their office. The foundation has already taken legal actions and filed a civil lawsuit against the mayor and the municipal council of Pécs for defamation and discrimination.

Both Mr. Nyitrai and Mr. Csontos believe the overwhelmingly positive reaction of the citizens of Pécs proves the majority of Hungarians don’t actually believe the government’s propaganda and hopefully will keep up with their humanity in the future.

Municipal leaders from all over Hungary met last Friday to discuss a national statement similar that of Pécs municipality.

“We don’t know how all this will end, but this trend against civil organizations spreads just like a virus across Hungary,” Mr. Nyitrai said.

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→ The Times. 2019-01-05. Hardliner Viktor Orban has George Soros’s liberal university in sights

From the ruins of communism a university has grown up in the heart of Budapest that attracts 1,400 postgraduates from around the world. Yet the studious silence within its five-storey library belies the political firestorm threatening the existence of the Central European University (CEU).

That is because it was founded by George Soros, the Hungarian-born billionaire philanthropist named public enemy No 1 by Viktor Orban, the right-wing prime minister.

Mr Orban, 54, has accused the “Soros empire”, including charities that help refugees, of masterminding an ultra-liberal crusade to undermine the country through mass immigration and multiculturalism.

With Hungary going to the polls in April the prime minister has built his re-election campaign around vilifying Mr Soros. The university has been caught in the crossfire.

[Testo riportato parzialmente causa il copyright]

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→ The Budapest Beacon. 2019-01-20. Orbán: Soros!

In his regular Friday morning appearance on state-run radio, a noticeably heavy-breathing and grunting Prime Minister Orbán elaborated on the Hungarian government’s “Stop Soros” bill, a proposal critics argue marks the latest attack on NGOs critical of the government’s violations of human rights and international law.

According to Orbán, the bill is the government’s response to its 2017 “Soros Plan” national consultation.

“It is important for the nation to be unified in dealing with serious and difficult issues,” he said, adding that the government’s national consultations are the best way of facilitating such national unity.

“We do not want Hungary to be an immigrant country. We want to make sure that those who organize and finance migration cannot thrive in Hungary, and we want to keep those who organize and finance migration – despite our calls for them not to do so – far away from Hungarian territory,” the prime minister said.

According to Orbán, the Open Society Foundations’ George Soros “gives a bunch of money to those who organize migration. Our three-point migration proposal will create a new situation. Everyone, including George Soros, must decide whether to cease or continue organizing and financing illegal migration, but the law applies to everyone.

“Civil organization, but more so the fake civil organization, must submit declarations that we will scrutinize with a magnifying glass. We will tax them.”

According to the prime minister, it does not matter whether the EU or Soros are funding such organizations, what matters is whether this funding is being used to further goals that go against the position of the Hungarian people.

Commenting on recent news that the Hungarian government had granted international protection to some 1,300 asylum-seekers in 2017 (a sensitive topic considering the government’s intense hate-mongering campaign against refugees), Orbán reassured listeners that these people will never be Hungarian citizens because they will be sent home as soon as they no longer need protection.

The prime minister also made an impassioned argument in defense of China’s enhanced presence in the region, and stated that China is a rich global power looking for investments around the world.

In Hungary’s case, Orbán said, China can offer financing for projects at rates more favorable than what is available through the EU and European banks. According to him, China poses no risks to Hungary or Europe, only opportunities.