Soros: Orbán is ‘attacking my views’

Speaking after meetings on the refugee crisis with the local chapter of his Open Society Foundations and Turkish officials in Istanbul this weekend, Soros said that “My own and the Foundation’s principles are not generally accepted, and we have many people opposed to us. But we stand by our principles,” WSJ reported.

“We are actively engaged with everyone, particularly in my native Hungary, where our approach is in direct opposition to the one advocated by the current prime minister, Viktor Orbán; he is currently engaged in attacking my views,” WSJ reported.

Speaking at a conference On October 30 that was meant to address future challenges, Orbán said a few well-organized activist leaders who think beyond nation states and are moving large funds might be be background actors behind current events.  “If you think about the Soros Foundation now, it is not gratuitous,” Orbán said.

On November 2, a few days after Orbán’s speech, Soros said that the actions of Orbán “undermine” European values, adding that a six-point plan published by the Soros foundation is intended to “uphold European values”.

Still, like Orbán, Soros is against the EUʼs quota system. “I’m opposed to compulsory quotas – they don’t work and they contravene the legal framework of the European Union and the international convention on refugees. There are many countries in the European Union that are not willing to accept voluntarily,” Soros said, according to the WSJ. He said Europe is able to absorb approximately one million refugees, but only on a “voluntary basis”, WSJ reported.