Orbán: Soros and the Open Society Foundations are crashing out

In the wake of a report that the Open Society Foundations (OSF) are leaving Hungary, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, in his regular Friday interview to public broadcaster Kossuth Radio, said “they are crashing out right now”.

In a statement after Austrian daily Die Presse said that the OSF, funded by US billionaire George Soros, was planning to close its Budapest office and move to Berlin this summer, the OSF released a statement qualifying the report, saying it was “closely watching developments around the draft legislation that would dramatically restrict the activities of civil society in Hungary”.

Asked about the Die Presse report, Orbán said: “Listeners will perhaps understand if I don’t cry crocodile tears.”

At the same time, Orbán said he expected conflicts to continue with Soros organisations, even if the OSF left Hungary.

“I know they won’t accept the outcome of the election; they will organise all sorts and they have unlimited financial means,” he said, referring to organisations financed by billionaire George Soros.

Referring to a list of “members of the Soros network” published by the weekly Figyelő last week, Orbán said transparency was at the heart of European policy and the press should continue to “help people to know the truth” and uncover “as many networks and cooperation as possible”. If they do not shy away from accepting money from abroad, they should not shy away from admitting to it, he added.

Orbán said his job was to defend Hungary against speculators.

He also said the most important issue of the next decade would be immigration. “It is a moral obligation to talk about it, and the message must get into every household a hundred times, and if need be a thousand times.”