Tuesday

19th Mar 2024

Soros-linked NGOs defy Orban purge

Hungarian NGOs funded by philanthropist George Soros have vowed to defy prime minister Viktor Orban’s plan to “sweep them out” of the country.

The Hungarian Helsinki Committee was one of several which said on Wednesday (12 January) that the planned purge was “unacceptable”.

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Get the EU news that really matters

Instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

The Helsinki group’s co-chair, Andras Kristof Kadar, told the ATV broadcaster that its work was non-political and designed to defend UN norms.

“When we criticise the government’s position on migration, then we want to hold the government accountable to the Geneva Convention and relevant EU norms,” he said.

The Soros-chaired Open Society Foundations (OSF), which is based in New York and which funds over 60 Hungarian NGOs, also vowed to defy Orban.

“[We] will continue to work in Hungary despite government opposition to our mission of fairer, accountable societies,” the OSF president, Christopher Stone, said on Wednesday.

They spoke out after Orban’s political party, Fidesz, on Tuesday said that the state would use “all tools at its disposal” to “sweep out” Soros-linked groups.

Soros, a Hungarian-born financier who lives in New York, has spent more than $1.6 billion promoting democratic development in central Europe.

The 86-year old survived the persecution of Jews in Hungary and fled the then communist country in 1947.

He used to work with Fidesz when it was an anti-communist party in the 1980s and a Soros scholarship even paid for Orban to go to Oxford University in 1989.

But Orban, now a self-proclaimed “illiberal”, clashed with civil society, as well as with the EU and the US, after he began to impose curbs on free press and on constitutional checks and balances.

He has also clashed with NGOs and with the EU on immigration, while accusing Soros of representing “intelligence connections” and of "organising refugee streams”.

The Fidesz party’s vice-chairman, Szilard Nemeth, said on Tuesday that the Hungarian Helsinki Committee, the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union, and Transparency International were among Soros-linked NGOs that had to go.

Trump effect

He also said that the purge was made possible by “an international opportunity”, alluding to the election of Donald Trump in the US.

Trump and Soros are also on bad terms, with Orban now expecting to get an easier ride from Washington.

Trump in a campaign ad called Soros part of “a global power structure that is responsible for the economic decisions” that had robbed the working classes, while Soros has called Trump a “con artist” and a “would-be dictator”.

Orban was the first EU leader to welcome Trump’s election and has cultivated ties with Russian president Vladimir Putin.

The Orban crackdown on NGOs began in earnest in 2014 whenhe expelled entities funded by the Norway Grants .

In a similar move, Putin designated the OSF as an “undesirable” foreign entity that threatened Russia’s security one year later.

Democracy crisis

The Russian leader will visit Budapest on 2 February, just two years after his last trip there.

Soros wrote in a recent opinion article that “democracy is now in crisis" in Europe.

"With economic growth lagging and the refugee crisis out of control, the EU is on the verge of breakdown and is set to undergo an experience similar to that of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s,” he warned.

Soros to EU: Help 'new Ukraine' against 'new Russia'

US philanthropist George Soros has said the EU needs to support "new Ukraine" in its struggle against Putin's "new Russia". His words came as Ukraine's President ended a unilateral ceasefire with separatists in the east of the country.

Soros tells EU to step up support for eastern states

Billionaire investor George Soros has said the European Union must do more to help its struggling eastern region, including a fast-tracking of member state applications to join the euro currency.

Interview

Polish government in bid to defund NGOs

Ruling Law and Justice has promised to overhaul the NGO sector. The move could strain relations with Norway, a major donor to Polish civic life.

Croatia and Hungary are 'new face of corruption'

Transparency International said the crackdown on civil society in Croatia and Hungary "under the guise of a nationalist, ‘illiberal’ agenda" represented the new face of corruption in Europe.

Opinion

How the EU can raise its game in the Middle East

Could the EU repair its reputation and credibility by taking action on Gaza? EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell, Spain, Belgium and Ireland, have worked hard to repair the damage, but have faced political headwinds due to internal divisions.

Latest News

  1. Borrell: 'Israel provoking famine', urges more aid access
  2. Europol: Israel-Gaza galvanising Jihadist recruitment in Europe
  3. EU to agree Israeli-settler blacklist, Borrell says
  4. EU ministers keen to use Russian profits for Ukraine ammo
  5. Call to change EIB defence spending rules hits scepticism
  6. Potential legal avenues to prosecute Navalny's killers
  7. EU summit, Gaza, Ukraine, reforms in focus this WEEK
  8. The present and future dystopia of political micro-targeting ads

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Nordic Council of MinistersJoin the Nordic Food Systems Takeover at COP28
  2. Nordic Council of MinistersHow women and men are affected differently by climate policy
  3. Nordic Council of MinistersArtist Jessie Kleemann at Nordic pavilion during UN climate summit COP28
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersCOP28: Gathering Nordic and global experts to put food and health on the agenda
  5. Friedrich Naumann FoundationPoems of Liberty – Call for Submission “Human Rights in Inhume War”: 250€ honorary fee for selected poems
  6. World BankWorld Bank report: How to create a future where the rewards of technology benefit all levels of society?

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsThis autumn Europalia arts festival is all about GEORGIA!
  2. UNOPSFostering health system resilience in fragile and conflict-affected countries
  3. European Citizen's InitiativeThe European Commission launches the ‘ImagineEU’ competition for secondary school students in the EU.
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersThe Nordic Region is stepping up its efforts to reduce food waste
  5. UNOPSUNOPS begins works under EU-funded project to repair schools in Ukraine
  6. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsGeorgia effectively prevents sanctions evasion against Russia – confirm EU, UK, USA

Join EUobserver

EU news that matters

Join us