Soros spokesperson rejects claims in national consultation
A spokesperson for Hungarian-born financier and philanthropist George Soros has issued a statement in response to the Hungarian governmentʼs latest “national consultation” propaganda campaign, in which it launches an all-out attack against the alleged “Soros plan” to resettle migrants across Europe.
A billboard in the anti-Soros campaign earlier this year, with the main caption reading: “Letʼs not let Soros have the last laugh!”
“There is no such thing as a global conspiracy against Hungary orchestrated by George Soros,” the spokesperson said, quoted in a report by the U.K.ʼs Financial Times. “We regret that the government is spending over USD 3 million of public money to play on instincts of fear and hatred to manipulate Hungarian voters six months ahead of the parliamentary election.”
The FT observes that Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, seeking a third consecutive term in elections next April, “has made criticism of Soros and the EU the core of his political message.”
The national consultation questionnaire, due to be posted to eight million citizens, accuses Soros - among other things - of plotting to flood Europe with more than 1 million immigrants each year in cahoots with the European Commission.
In an article in 2016, the FT notes, Soros said the EU should boost its external border security and guarantee places for 300,000 refugees to discourage irregular migration. He also called for a common European asylum system, but has repeatedly argued against forcing EU countries to accept quotas of refugees, the report stressed.
“The EU cannot coerce member states to accept refugees they do not want, or refugees to go where they are not wanted,” Soros was quoted as stating.
Despite this, notes the FT, Hungaryʼs government continues to portray a 2015 decision by more than 20 EU governments to create a refugee relocation program as a key element of an alleged “Soros plan.”
Human Rights Watch, an international NGO supported by Soros’s foundations, has described the latest consultation as an “official hate campaign” containing false statements, adding that it was “likely to fuel anti-foreigner sentiment.”
Hungaryʼs government continues to refuse to acknowledge the legitimacy of the EU’s refugee-sharing program, despite a September ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ) rejecting Hungarian and Slovakian objections to the plan.
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