George Soros

Fidesz’s mayors hold conference on migration, ‘Soros plan’

Fidesz’s mayors of local authorities held a conference on Friday in Budapest to discuss illegal migration, decry the so-called “Soros plan” and express support for the government’s migration policy.

The conference was initiated by Kaposvár mayor Károly Szita, of the ruling Fidesz party.

In his opening speech, Szita said that

2018 would be a “crucial” year as “Brussels seeks to have the mandatory resettlement quotas accepted by each country by summer and speed up family reunification.”

The eight contributors, seven of whom were mayors and members of Fidesz or the co-ruling Christian Democrats, agreed in rejecting migration and the EU’s mandatory resettlement quota scheme, citing dangers to public safety, women’s equality and “parallel societies”.

Approving an appeal, the participants called on the government to initiate laws, if need be, “to counter the ‘Soros Plan’ and the agencies organising migration”.

Activists of the opposition Együtt party protested against the conference on the spot.

Photo: MTI

Junior ruling party calls for action plan against ‘Soros migrant scheme’

residency bond

Since the “allies” of US billionaire George Soros are pressing on with their “attack” against Hungary the ruling Fidesz and Christian Democrat (KDNP) parties urge the government to draft and implement an action plan against the so-called Soros migrant plan, a KDNP lawmaker said on Wednesday.

Speaking at a press conference, István Hollik noted the visit to Budapest by “one of Soros’s closest allies in Brussels”, Green MEP Judith Sargentini, the author of the report being prepared by the European Parliament’s civil liberties committee (LIBE) on the state of the rule of law in Hungary.

Sargentini is one of the main advocates of Brussels’ pro-migration policy promoting the mandatory migrant quota scheme, Hollik said,

adding that the MEP had been working in partnership with one of Soros’s organisations for more than ten years, according to a post on her social media site.

“The preparation of a Soros report denouncing Hungary is under way,” Hollik said, insisting that its aim was to pave the way for the implementation of the “Soros plan” and to force the Hungarian government to compromise on its anti-migration policy.

Government officials held talks with Sargentini in Budapest on Tuesday. Addressing a press conference, foreign ministry state secretary Levente Magyar noted that LIBE had been asked to prepare a report on Hungary with a view to holding an EP vote on launching the first steps of Article 7, which suspends voting rights.

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‘Hungary didn’t want migrants, Germany did’ – German Bild’s interview with Orbán

Germany has always welcomed migrants while Hungary didn’t, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán told the German Bild Zeitung in an interview published on Monday. Hungary is doing its share by protecting the EU’s Schengen border, he said.

Orbán said he does not see those striving to enter the European Union as Muslim refugees but as “a Muslim invading force”, economic migrants in search of a better life. They have crossed four safe countries on their way to the EU, “which are not as rich as Germany” but are safe and where they do not have to “run for their lives”, he said.

Those arriving at Hungary’s borders in 2015 entered the country illegally, it “was not a wave of refugees but an invasion”, he said. “I never understood how Germany, an example of discipline and the rule of law to us, could celebrate a mass illegal entry, anarchy and chaos as something good,” he said.

Politically, the issue of migration is a problem of the European Union. Sociologically, it is a German problem, Orbán said. All migrants aim for Germany because they “want a German life”, he insisted. The Hungarian people do not want migration, Orbán said. “In my view, it is impossible for a government to reject the people’s will on such a fundamental issue. This is a question of sovereignty and cultural identity. We have to preserve the prerogative to decide who is to live on Hungarian soil.”

A large number of Muslim immigrants will lead to parallel societies. Multiculturalism is an illusion, Muslim and Christian societies will never connect, he said. “We [Hungary] do not want this. And we do not want anyone to force it upon us,” Orbán said.

Regarding the fact that

Hungary refuses to comply with a European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruling ordering it to accept nearly 1,300 asylum seekers,

Orbán said the ruling pertained to an EU decree which has expired during the procedure. Otherwise he would have accepted the ruling. “We observe the rule of law”, he said. The solution to the problem is not to distribute illegal migrants throughout the EU but to take help where the problems arise, he said. “The EU is a wonderful project, of which we are glad to be a part, and in which we will remain a member,” said Orbán.

Asked about the nationwide billboard campaign against US billionaire George Soros, Orbán responded saying that Soros, “who had accumulated his wealth from casino capitalism and who styles himself a head of state without a state”, is also waging a campaign against the Hungarian government.

“This open debate is nothing if not a proof of press freedom,” Orbán said, adding that Soros had been financing 60 NGOs that support migration to Europe.

“But now all this concerns national security and not the freedom of opinion, and I must take steps,” he told the paper. The Hungarian prime minister was also asked about criticism levelled against him by SPD party leader Martin Schulz and others for participating as guest of honour at the German CSU party’s annual conference over the weekend.

Orbán responded as saying that he had always respected Schulz as “a great warrior”. It is however two different things “to be entertaining as a warrior ” and “carrying responsibility in shaping a country’s politics”, he told the paper.

Photo: MTI

Fidesz: Hungary openly attacked for rejecting resettlement quota

Hungary was openly attacked already in the first few days of 2018 for rejecting the European Union’s mandatory resettlement quota, the spokesman of ruling Fidesz said on Saturday. 

Imre Puskás noted that the European Commission had taken Hungary to court over migrant quotas and that former European Parliament President Martin Schulz, the current head of Germany’s SPD party, had accused Prime Minister Viktor Orbán of having torpedoed the mandatory migrant settlement scheme.

Such attacks are likely to continue because pro-migration politicians in Europe “want to sort out the approval of the Soros plan”

which will include the introduction of mandatory resettlement for an unlimited number of migrants, he told a press conference.

Next week, “Soros organisations” plan to launch another attack against Hungary, in the European Parliament, and Judith Sargentini, who was responsible for a “Soros report condemning Hungary”, will visit Budapest, he added.

Páskas called on Martin Schulz and other pro-migration politicians to note that migration has brought crime and terrorism to Europe, and that security concerns have become the everyday reality in European societies.

Hungarians have expressed their will: they do not want Hungary to become an “immigrant country”

and they do not want the mandatory resettlement quota or any other elements of the “Soros plan” either.

As we wrote, Hungary’s foreign minister has dismissed criticism by the head of Germany’s SPD party Martin Schulz levelled against Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and his migration policy, saying that Schulz’s accusations were unfounded. Read more HERE.

Photo: MTI

Orbán cabinet: European Commission action against Hungary exhibits ‘double standards’

hungary eu flag

The European Commission is applying double standards by singling out the refusal to implement European Union refugee quotas by three member states, a government official said on Thursday.

The European Court of Justice announced today that it will hear the case against Hungary, the Czech Republic and Poland regarding the infringement procedure for their refusal to abide by the decision on EU refugee quotas.

Pal Volner, parliamentary state secretary of the ministry of justice, told a press conference on Thursday that the lawsuit did not apply to several other countries that had not taken in migrants.

He said

the procedure was purely about Brussels maintaining its quota case and enforcing the imposition of unrestricted migrant quotas on EU member states.

Meanwhile, Fidesz said in a statement that the European Commission was renewing pressure against Hungary by taking the issue of migrant quotas to court. The ruling party insisted the mandatory quota was part of the so-called Soros Plan, named after US billionaire George Soros. Fidesz said that Brussels, accordingly, did not plan the one-off relocation of a limited number of migrants within the EU but the introduction of an automatic migration process without an upper limit.

“The lawsuit against the countries that reject the quota is nothing other than a way to exert political pressure,” the statement said.

Jobbik slams Orbán’s plan to ask voters for donations 

Opposition Jobbik has criticised Prime Minister Viktor Orbán for his recent plan to call on voters to contribute money to finance the government’s campaign against US billionaire George Soros, and said the move was “false and impertinent”. 

“The richest party, or the richest business (in Hungary), is now begging voters for money… Thousands of billions of forints have disappeared, over which Orbán alone now disposes, and this man is now asking voters for money,” Jobbik MP György Szilágyi told a press conference on Wednesday.

Szilágyi noted that ruling Fidesz’s voter base were mostly seniors, many below the poverty line, “whom now the prime minister is asking for contributions”.

Szilágyi said the existence of an alleged “Soros plan” has not been ascertained, and suggested that if there is such a scheme, “it is about Soros helping his people to power at the time of the regime change (1989)… including Viktor Orbán.” “In that case, Fidesz is fighting itself,” he added.

While Fidesz’s policy is “based on hatred and fear”, Jobbik would build democracy and a transparent economy, Szilágyi said. 

Orbán announced on Tuesday that he would contact supporters by mail and ask them for donations to help his party “protect Hungary from the activities of US financier George Soros“.

Orbán, who is also Fidesz’s leader, will describe in the letter the main challenges of the upcoming period and state that “now it is the most important to protect Hungary” from the activities of US financier George Soros in order to ensure that “Hungary should indeed stay Hungarian”, the statement added.

The letter will include a donation form and supporters will be told that their donations could contribute to enabling Fidesz “to fare successfully in the political battles of the upcoming period”.

Photo: MTI

Hungarian Deputy PM: EC decision to launch Article 7 procedure against Poland ‘astounding’

The European Commission’s decision to launch Article 7.1 procedure against Poland over its judicial reforms is “unprecedented and astounding”, Zsolt Semjén, Hungary’s deputy prime minister said, adding that Hungary may veto it.

The decision seriously violates Poland’s sovereignty. It is unacceptable that Brussels is exerting pressure on sovereign member states and arbitrarily punishing democratically elected governments, he said.

Semjén called it unjust that the Commission fails to take steps when certain European member states violate the European treaties, then launches “politically motivated procedures” against the Polish government.

This is a typical case of double standards. What the European Commission is doing now runs totally counter to European values, he said.

“The Polish-Hungarian friendship and the Hungarian government’s commitment to treaties obliges us to step up against the Commission’s move in all forums,” Semjén said.

Asked by MTI if this could mean that Hungary would veto the proposed decision against Poland, the deputy prime minister said yes.

Commenting on the EC decision, Fidesz press chief Balázs Hídvéghi called the EC decision a proof for Brussels’ efforts to punish the countries that oppose the settlement of migrants in Europe and the mandatory resettlement quota scheme. Hungary rejects the EU’s way of using legal procedures for exerting political pressure, he said adding that Hungary will defend Poland and stand by the will of the Hungarian people who have refused the “Soros plan”.

Liberals to turn to top court over Pécs assembly’s ‘anti-NGO’ declaration

The opposition Liberal Party is turning to the Constitutional Court and the ombudsman for fundamental rights over a declaration adopted by the municipal assembly of Pécs last week protesting the establishment of a “Soros campaign centre” in the southern Hungarian city, the party’s leader said on Tuesday.

Speaking at a press conference, Gábor Fodor also slammed a letter Kaposvár mayor Károly Szita had sent to his colleagues, “urging them to resist US financier George Soros’s opening offices for NGOs in various cities across Hungary”.

If there is a clampdown on civil groups, it will result in weakened democratic controls, Fodor said, objecting to what he saw as efforts to demonise Soros.

Ruling Fidesz reacted by saying that the Liberals “are again standing up for George Soros”. In a statement, the party said Fodor was “one of the opposition politicians who have been attacking the government’s migration policy from the beginning”. Hungarian cities and towns are rightfully wary of the “Soros network” and its “pro-migrant policies”, Fidesz said, arguing that “wherever migrants have shown up in Europe, everyday security was gone”.

More than 2 million Hungarians reject ‘Soros plan’

More than 2 million Hungarians have said “no” to the entirety of the so-called Soros plan in the government’s nationwide public survey, a government official said on Tuesday.

More than 90 percent of the questionnaires sent in by mail have been processed and the results clearly show that Hungarians unanimously reject any plan that aides or encourages immigration, cabinet office state secretary Csaba Dömötör told a press conference.

Those who took part in the “National Consultation” survey unanimously rejected the settlement of one million migrants in Europe each year, the redistribution of migrants who have entered Europe among member states as well as the proposal to provide migrants with 9 million forints’ (EUR 28,700) worth of financial aid over their first two years living in the European Union, Dömötör said. Further,

they stand by protecting Hungary’s fence on its border with Serbia and reject the idea of putting pressure on member states that oppose the relocation of migrants, he added.

Asked about several municipal councils across Hungary having protested civil groups supported by Soros’s Open Society Foundation in recent days, the state secretary said the municipal councils in question had reason to suspect that NGOs backed by the foundation would aid immigration. Dömötör said he was not surprised that the municipal councils were using every method at their disposal to resist the migrant relocation plans.

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Hungarian mayors called on to discuss mandatory migrant relocation

Daily News Hungary

The head of the Association of County Seats (MJVSZ) on Tuesday called on mayors in Hungary to discuss ways to eliminate “the recent dangers” illegal migration causes to residents.

Károly Szita, the mayor of Kaposvár in south-western Hungary, told a press conference that he had sent letters to his colleagues, initiating a meeting for the discussion of the EU’s mandatory quotas during the first half of 2018.

Szita, of ruling Fidesz, noted that around 80 percent of mayors had signed a joint petition against EU migrant quotas in December last year.

“It gives cause to concern that according to reports Brussels has not given up on the mandatory relocation,” he said.

Szita added that the European Parliament had recently passed a resolution assigning civil organisations an increased role in facilitating migration.

He added that US billionaire George Soros would also fund civil organisations set up in Hungarian cities to implement his migration plan.

Such NGOs have already appeared in Pécs and Debrecen and the network continues to be built up in further cities and towns across Hungary, Szita said.

He said the key task for mayors is to ensure security and peace for residents.

Fidesz will not allow the implementation of the ‘Soros plan’

soros plan hungary

As long as Fidesz is governing Hungary, it will not allow the implementation of the “Soros plan” on migrant quotas, the minister in charge of the government’s Modern Cities programme said in Debrecen, in eastern Hungary, on Monday.

Efforts to set up and expand a network of civil organisations aimed at implementing the European Parliament’s mandatory migrant relocation plan are already under way, Lajos Kósa, the former mayor of the city, told a press conference.

As part of his plan, US billionaire George Soros has transferred 130 million forints (EUR 414,000) to a local NGO, the Association of Alternative Communities (AKE), he said.

But instead of performing real civil tasks, the AKE will help settle and integrate migrants, and facilitate family reunification procedures, Kósa added, insisting that the association’s operation was non-transparent.

“Debrecen has already done its share in tackling the migrant crisis; the city has fought for a long time for closing the local refugee camp that has caused a lot of problem for the residents in the area,” Kósa said.

László Papp, the mayor, said

the city firmly protests against the operation of “sham charity civil organisations” that help implement the Soros plan.

“These are political organisations,” Papp said and called on AKE to stop “its political activities”.

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Hungarian deputy PM: Christian civilisation is jeopardised by the dual voice of Brussels

Zsolt Semjén, leader of the co-ruling Christian Democratic party and deputy PM, highlighted “responsibility for Europe’s future’ in his address to the board of his party in a meeting held on Saturday. 

Semjén warned that “Christian civilisation is jeopardised by the dual voice of Brussels” and insisted that

Christian values are “being deliberately destroyed by anti-clerical, anti-family and anti-nationalist attitudes”.

Referring to “Jacobin, communist, liberal and 1968 ideologies”, Semjén said they were rooted in free masonry and condemned “the relativisation of Christianity”.

Semjén said a “demographic vacuum” was caused by a “deliberate destruction of the family”, by “questioning motherhood or marriage between man and woman”. As for anti-nationalism, he said that “Islam, which despises Europe, transgresses (the continent) like a knife through butter”.

As for “the other voice of Brussels”,

Semjén blamed EU leaders for “facilitating migration” and insisted that “human smugglers organised (illegal) migration in cooperation with NGOs, while German Chancellor Angela Merkel extended an unlimited invitation to migrants without asking her own fellow citizens or other member states.” 

House Speaker László Kövér, photo: MTI

House Speaker László Kövér said in his address that the upcoming general election could “also decide Europe’s fate”. He insisted that Hungary’s position in Europe is “stronger than the size of its population or the output of its economy”, therefore it is a crucial country for the EU to preserve “its Christian character”. That is why, he said, “Hungary is being attacked” by “certain institutions and bureaucrats” of the EU, most of whom are “in the pockets of George Soros”.

Kövér suggested that Hungary’s new constitution created a bone of contention, and insisted that “for some it is scandalous to refer to national history, traditions and a national identity, to Christian roots or to stipulate that marriage is made for life between a man and woman”.

The event was held in the Budapest headquarters of the Dunamellék Reformed Church District.

Photo: MTI

Parliament adopts resolution rejecting EP decision on migration

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Parliament adopted on Tuesday a resolution proposed by ruling Fidesz rejecting the European Parliament’s November 16 decision on mandatory quotas on the resettlement of asylum seekers.

The resolution was adopted with 142 votes in favour and 3 against. The Socialists, the leftist Democratic Coalition and green LMP did not vote.

Fidesz deputy head Szilárd Németh told a press conference after the vote that it had made it clear that “the entire left wing has lined up behind the Soros plan”.

Jobbik “denies the existence of the Soros plan one day and admits it the next”, Németh said, “which is what happened in the vote”.

The vote showed clearly who supports the “Soros plan” and who defends Hungary’s interests and the country’s sovereignty, Németh insisted.

The patrotic people’s Jobbik party said that it supported “95 percent of the resolution” but also added that it saw “no written proof that the European Parliament is implementing that plan”. Speaking at a press conference, Jobbik deputy group leader Gábor Staudt argued that “from person A agreeing with person B does not follow that one should be acting on instructions by the other.”

Staudt also said that “while the ruling parties tried to make (the public) believe that the whole of the opposition was committedly pro-migration,” Jobbik supported the resolution in parliament.

Hungary’s ruling parties propose parliamentary decree to thwart ‘Soros plan’

Deputies of the ruling Fidesz-Christian Democrat alliance submitted a draft decree to parliament to counter the European Parliament’s “decision to implement the Soros plan”. The Cabinet Office of the Prime Minister will prepare measures by January’s government meeting with the aim to thwart the “Soros plan”, cabinet office chief Antal Rogán said on Monday during a hearing before parliament’s justice committee.

Christian Democrat MP István Hollik told a press conference that

the decree would demonstrate “parliament’s rejection to accelerate the influx of immigrants and their relocation in groups”.

Hollik said that parliament’s adopting the decree would also be equal to the national assembly’s rejecting that “Brussels should transfer competencies to pro-migration Soros agencies”.

Hollik voiced hope that parliament would have a vote on the bill on Tuesday.

In its decree, parliament would “call on the government not to succumb to the pressure from Brussels… and reject the Soros plan, and provide continuous information to all Hungarians concerning the status of the implementation of that plan”.

The deputy said that the EP’s recent, “revolting” decision would lay the foundation of a system of “permanent and mandatory re-distribution of migrants”, which he suggested would “irreversibly change the future and culture of Europe”.

Hollik reiterated the government’s position that “Hungary and the Hungarian people do not need the Soros plan, they do not want a mandatory relocation mechanism, nor do they want to see immigrants.”

The green opposition LMP said they would stay away from parliament’s debate on the proposed decree.

LMP’s prime minister-candidate Bernadett Szel said that such a debate would make the national assembly “ridiculous”, adding that she would use the time to talk to people outside parliament concerning wages, national health, education and corruption.

Cabinet office to prepare measures to thwart ‘Soros plan’

In response to opposition criticism, he presented notarial deeds which he said clearly and credibly demonstrated that 2,171,500 “National Consultation” survey questionnaires had been received by the postal service by December 5. Together with online forms, nearly 2.3 million people expressed their opinions through the survey, he added.

Already in the initial phase of processing the questionnaires it is clear that the majority of people reject the “Soros plan” on migration and the attempts to restrict Hungary’s sovereignty. As a result, steps need to be prepared to thwart the plan in Hungary and in the European Union, Rogán said.

Photo: MTI

‘Soros plan’ rejected by overwhelming majority in national consultation, state secretary says

Daily News Hungary

An overwhelming majority of voters who participated in the government survey dubbed as national consultation rejected the “Soros plan”, state secretary for government communication Bence Tuzson said in Budapest on Sunday. 

Tuzson noted that the latest national consultation has been the most successful in the history of such polls as 2.3 million voters participated in it. He said that more than 1.5 million questionnaires had been processed by December 7, 99 percent of which were valid.

Almost all the participants rejected the idea that, as part of the Soros plan, 1 million immigrants a year should be settled in Europe, the fence along Hungary’s southern border should be dismantled and migrants should be distributed among the EU member states based on mandatory resettlement quotas, the state secretary said.

Tuzson said the overwhelming majority of respondents rejected the suggestion that “the state should support each immigrant with 9 million forints,” as well as the idea that in the case of certain criminal offences the immigrants should fall into a milder penalty category.

Those who returned the government’s questionnaire also rejected the idea that Hungary’s language and culture should be changed or relegated into the background as well as the suggestion that countries rejecting the “Soros plan” should have to pay a fine, he said.

The state secretary reiterated that “the government will fight the mandatory quota scheme and advocate the position of the Hungarian people both in Hungary and Europe”.

Christian Democrats: Brussels has chosen migrants over protecting Europe

Daily News Hungary

Instead of working to protect Europe, Brussels has settled on relocating migrants to the continent, a lawmaker of the co-ruling Christian Democrats (KDNP) said on Friday.

Speaking at a press conference, István Hollik called the draft reforms to the Dublin refugee system recently approved by the European Parliament’s civil liberties LIBE committee “unacceptable”, adding that it contained a number of “outrageous” clauses.

Among the clauses he said the ruling Fidesz-KDNP alliance disagrees with, Hollik named the ones proposing that the European Union’s rules for refugee family reunification should apply collateral kin as well, and that

migrants of up to groups of 30 should be allowed to submit asylum applications. 

Fidesz-KDNP also disagrees with the proposal that would assign the responsibility of migrant relocation to a permanent relocation council, Hollik added. Such a body would be tasked with overseeing the redistribution of migrants among member states, enforcing the rules of the quota system and keeping track of which countries are behind on implementing the mandatory quota scheme, he said.

Hollik said the entire reform proposal had “the Soros plan and the influence of Soros organisations on Brussels written all over it”.

Hollik stressed the importance of voter participation in the Hungarian government’s “national consultation” public survey on the so-called Soros plan.