George Soros

Italian government decision to open southern ports ‘dangerous’ – Orbán cabinet

The Hungarian government’s position is that the Italian government’s decision to open the country’s southern ports to illegal migrants is dangerous and gives cause for concern, the foreign minister told MTI on Tuesday.

Just how many illegal immigrants have already entered Europe is enough, there should be no more allowed in,

Péter Szijjártó said, highlighting the importance of protecting Europe’s borders.

The Hungarian government was the first to prove that the flow of immigrants via land routes can be stopped, he said.

The previous Italian government with Matteo Salvini as deputy prime minister and interior minister was the first to prove that the same could be achieved on the sea route as well, Szijjártó said.

This is why the new Italian government’s decision is a major setback, he said.

After opening the ports, the next step will obviously be for the Italian government “to enforce” the migrant distribution quota scheme which Hungary will continue to reject, he added.

“We have made it clear that we will not yield to any blackmail should it be directed against us by Soros-supported NGOs, a western European government or Brussels,”

Szijjártó said, adding that Hungary will take the utmost efforts to prevent the quotas’ implementation.

Hungarians expressed their decision on several occasions that they do not want illegal immigrants in their country. That is why, unlike the current Italian government, we will protect our borders and will not allow illegal immigrants to enter Hungary, he said.

Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio, leader of the governing Five Star Movement, on Monday evening rejected the Hungarian government’s reservations concerning his government’s migration-related decisions in a statement.

Hungary ready to continue cooperation with Italy, Orbán tells Conte

September 17, 2019

Is there a migration crisis in Hungary?

Less than 30 immigrants have been given refugee status during the first six months of this year, according to Magyar Hang (news agency). The Hungarian Helsinki Committee has recently published data about the number of asylum seekers. 10 immigrants were recognised as refugees, 14 received subsidiary protection, and 4 were admitted. However, the full number of asylum seekers exceeded 250.

The difference between the number of applications and acceptances is because of Hungarian laws. Due to the “Stop Soros!” package of laws, all immigrants who cross the borders of safe countries (where they could expect proper protection) before arriving in Hungary are rejected. Serbia is among these countries, so all the applications are rejected at the first stage because the transit zone is on the Hungarian-Serbian borderline. If the person concerned appeals to the court, the legal asylum procedure has to be conducted. The majority of the 28 immigrants who received refugee status this year were not from the transit zones – those who are there have not received asylum from the Hungarian authorities yet – based on the report of Zoltán Somogyvári (an associate of the Hungarian Helsinki Committee).

Élet a tranzitban — Life at the transit zone
Photo: Rebecca Harms/Flickr

Felipe Gonzales Morales – a United Nations Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants – visited Hungary in July. Based on his conclusions,

“The politicisation of the issue of migration in Hungary has scapegoated migrants.”

Refugees are depicted as dangerous enemies in front of society. In the meantime, he only saw desperate, vulnerable, and traumatised people held behind a barbed-wire fence. The Hungarian government introduced the “migration crisis” in 2015 and has extended it several times – the actual due date of it is 7th September 2019 – and it is still expected to do so again. According to Morales, the state of crisis is not reasonable anymore, so it is high time to end it. While the applications are judged (60 days), applicants are not allowed to leave the transit zone, and they are escorted by guards inside the zone wherever they go. Even children have to wait in these “prison circumstances,” concluded Morales.

Tranzitzóna — Child in the transit zone
Photo: Rebecca Harms/Flickr

A response from Tamás Menczer – the State Secretary for Communication and the International Representation of Hungary (Ministry of Foreign Affairs) – came quickly. According to the state secretary,

“Morales only judges us because we see migration as a safety hazard. He judges us because we talk about the migration crisis, although this is the reality.”

He states that there are at least 30-35 million people living in Europe’s South and South-East neighbouring area, who are ready to move towards Europe anytime they decide to do so. The barrier on the border will remain to maintain the safety of Hungarian citizens, concluded Menczer.

August 18, 2019

Soros to give even more money to the CEU – video

He wrote a message to the Central European University Community, slapping the Hungarian government and clearing up that he is planning to increase CEU’s endowments.

According to him, the Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orbán, has forced the Central European University (CEU) to move its U.S. degree courses to Vienna by making it impossible for CEU to issue American degrees in Budapest.

However, CEU is nevertheless determined to

maintain both academic and public activities

on its campus in Budapest, and it has the full support of the Open Society Foundations and me personally in this endeavour.

I therefore reiterate the commitment—made in June—that CEU has an assured future: the Open Society Foundations

intend to increase CEU’s endowments.

Soros concluded that he would like to thank the perseverance and loyalty of the CEU community under the inspired leadership of its president and rector Michael Ignatieff in very difficult circumstances. “I am also grateful for the steadfast support CEU received both from the Hungarian public and the global academic community. With their support, CEU has emerged as the beacon and symbol of academic freedom worldwide,” he stated.

In fact, his son, Alex Soros, already talked about a possible rise in the CEU’s financial support in June at the university’s graduation ceremony. He added then that he awaits the day when Hungary becomes a democratic country again, hvg.hu reported.

Zsolt Enyedi, pro-rector of the university, said that

they need 4-5 years to move to Vienna

and that is why they received a higher sum of money.

As we reported before, George Soros’s Open Society Foundations closed its Budapest office last summer. The billionaire philanthropist is the target of many right-wing political movements, so it is probably not surprising that in his mailbox at his Westchester County Home in Bedford, an explosive device was found. Fortunately, the bomb was exploded by squad technicians, and no one was injured.

When in April, he was given the Don Ridenhour Bravery Award, he said that the Hungarian Prime Minister turned him into the supervillain of an alleged plot, and the values of an open society were under attack around the world, including the United States.

Here, you can watch his speech:

August 17, 2019

194 million EUR of propaganda – the top business of the Hungarian government

Governmental organisations and associations spent approximately 65 billion HUF (194 million EUR) on state propaganda and communication strategies last year. This is twice the amount of financial investment than what the government invested before starting the campaigns.

According to g7.hu, apart from the government, several ministries spent 44 billion HUF (131 million EUR) on communication and propaganda in the last few years. Furthermore, the Cabinet Office spent only 35 billion HUF (104 million EUR) in twelve months. Although the government set up an organisation to spare money for state matters, it seems like they could not follow the original financial plan while starting different kinds of campaigns. Propaganda even appeared in famous Hungarian music festivals like VOLT.

The main “customer” of state propaganda is the Cabinet Office led by Antal Rogán.

Most of the money was requested to be spent on blue-coloured billboards which were later redesigned by the portrait of billionaire George Soros. Another significant amount of money was spent on the ‘Egy természettel’ campaign to promote the national hunting and nature exhibition in the country. Last but not least, the Ministry of Human Capacities ordered and made the country’s ‘pro-family ads’ campaign happen, where they used a man and a woman who were already famous worldwide from memes on the internet. After the government removed the anti-migration and anti-Soros posters from Budapest, a new series of ads appeared, promoting Hungary’s new family policies. However, it featured a low-cost stock image with the internet’s most popular dysfunctional couple.

CLICK HERE to find out more!

From originally being given 90 billion HUF (268 million EUR) of financial support for state campaigns, “only” 15 billion HUF (45 million EUR) is available, and another 30 billion HUF (90 million EUR) for different events.

August 17, 2019

Man who sent pipe bombs to Obama and Soros is convicted

Cesar Sayoc suspected of sending politicians – including Hungarian politician György Soros and Obama – pipe bombs, plead guilty and was sentenced to 20 years in prison and five years supervised release afterwards. He reportedly cried and apologised as the judge announced the verdict.

On Monday, Cesar Sayoc was given a 20-year sentence in New York. He faced 65 counts of felony charges and a penalty up to life in prison. US District Judge Jed Rakoff deemed that Sayoc, 57, consciously chose to build bombs that were unable to actually detonate, reports CNN.

Sayoc sent 16 bombs to 13 victims in the weeks leading up to the mid-term elections. Judge Rakoff said: “He hated his victims, he wished them no good, but he was not so lost as to wish them dead, at least not by his own hand.”

His targets included former President Barack Obama, his Vice President Joe Biden, former Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, to CNN offices in New York and Atlanta, as well as György Soros, Hungarian politician, and more.

None of his bombs ever went off or harmed anyone.

He was arrested in October in South Florida and held without bail ever since. During his hearing, he apologised, saying: “I am beyond so very sorry for what I did. Now that I am a sober man, I know I was a very sick man. I should have listened to my mother, the love of my life. She told me to get help.” He blamed his actions on mental illnesses, such as PTSD from being sexually assaulted as a student, but he still took full responsibility. “I am so very sorry to all the victims… I will be apologising to them for the rest of my life.”

He mailed each bomb from different states, and he was wanted nationwide. After a five-day-long chase, he was finally caught in South Florida.

He entered his plea guilty previously this year, which stated that he understood “the risk that [the devices] would explode” and that he “sent all of the 16 devices with the intent to threaten and intimidate people and with the intent to injure property.”

“Cesar Sayoc has now been sentenced for acts of domestic terrorism that are repulsive to all Americans who cherish a society built on respectful and non-violent political discourse. Our democracy depends on our debating our strongly held views peacefully and respectfully, and when someone does not, on our prosecuting and punishing those who do not abide by these values,” Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C. Demers said in a statement.

In a letter to Judge Rakoff, Sayoc wrote, that he truly believed the democratic party to be inciting violence, which he became a victim of. He referred to the night of Trump’s inauguration, when – according to him – he was attacked twice as he was on his way to his hotel.

“In this darkness, Mr Sayoc found light in Donald J. Trump,” his lawyers wrote in a plea for leniency. “He came to believe that he was being personally targeted for supporting Trump: Mr Sayoc thought that anti-Trump forces were trying to hurt him, and they were to blame when his van was vandalised.”

According to his lawyers, he did not truly understand to harm and destruction his home-made bombs could potentially cause, and that he truly is sorry for his actions.

August 7, 2019

EC takes Hungary to court over ‘Stop Soros’ law

The European Commission has decided to refer Hungary to the Court of Justice of the European Union over its “Stop Soros” package of laws, initiating the third phase of the ongoing infringement procedure in connection with that legislation.

Having deemed that the Hungarian government had not done enough to address its concerns, the EC decided to take the case to the Luxembourg-based court.

The infringement procedure was launched in July 2018.

In a statement, the EC said the new law and a related constitutional amendment were not compatible with EU law. Criminalising activities that support asylum and residence applications restricts the right to request asylum, it added.

“The Hungarian legislation curtails asylum applicants’ right to communicate with and be assisted by relevant national, international and non-governmental organisations by criminalising support to asylum applications”, the EC said.

The EC reasoned that the law excessively restricts EU citizens’ right to free movement and fails to take into consideration the rights of those affected as well as guarantees afforded to them under EU law.

The EC has also decided to send a letter of formal notice to Hungary concerning the withdrawal of food provisions for people detained in Hungarian transit zones at the border with Serbia who are waiting to be expelled from the country. The EC found that detention conditions in the Hungarian transit zones does not respect the material conditions set out in the Return Directive and the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.

“In view of the urgency of the situation, the deadline for Hungary to respond to the Commission’s concerns is set to 1 month, after which the Commission may decide to follow-up by sending a reasoned opinion,” the statement said.

Another decision taken by the EC concerns the referral of Hungary to the Court of Justice of the EU for excluding non-EU nationals with long-term resident status from practising as vets.

Commenting on the EC’s decision, the government spokesman said Hungary would continue to stand by its “Stop Soros” laws and the constitutional amendment banning the mandatory settlement of migrants by non-Hungarian authorities in the country.

The Hungarian government is ready for the procedure, István Hollik said.

The contested measures serve the protection of the Hungarian people, Hollik said. Hungarians have made it very clear at referendums as well as the parliamentary and EP elections that they want nothing to do with migration and want to protect Europe’s Christian culture, he said.

The constitutional amendment prohibiting the settlement of migrants in Hungary and the “Stop Soros” laws, which criminalise the organisation and promotion of illegal migration, serve just that purpose, he said.

The government believes that those measures reflect the will of the Hungarian people and comply with the Geneva convention, the Schengen Agreement and the Dublin Regulation, Hollik said.

The government’s communications centre said in a statement that the outgoing European Commission “is still working to complete the dirty work of pro-migration forces”. According to the statement, the commission’s procedures are aimed at “pressuring Hungary to drop its more stringent immigration rules and eliminate transit zones which are crucial for border protection”.

In its statement, the centre rejected “lies” concerning services for asylum-seekers and insisted that those in the transit zones are catered for “in line with the regulations” and are provided with those services until completion of their asylum process.

July 25, 2019

Fidesz: EPP group stands by Hidvéghi’s nomination for LIBE vice-chair

The European People’s Party group stands by Fidesz MEP Balázs Hidvéghi’s nomination to serve as vice-chair of the European Parliament’s civil liberties committee (LIBE) after calls from civil groups funded by US billionaire George Soros for the EPP to withdraw the nomination, Fidesz’s EP group has said.

“The pro-migration forces will stop at nothing to override the clear will of Hungarian voters,” MEPs of the ruling Fidesz-Christian Democrat alliance said in a statement.

But at its Monday session, the EPP’s parliamentary group decided not to give in to the pressure of “Soros’s more than 200 European lobby groups” and vowed to stand by its original nominees for committee positions, Fidesz-KDNP said.

The MEPs said the lobby groups in question had penned a letter to the EPP group expressing their concerns over Hidvéghi’s nomination.

Further, they called on the group to “find a nominee for the position of LIBE vice-chair who pursues an open and transparent dialogue with civil society organisations.”

Fidesz insisted the letter’s “independent” signatories were all backed by Soros‘s foundations.

The group called it “outrageous” that the signatories “ignore the written rules and customary law of the European Parliament that have been in effect for 40 years”.

“This constitutes a grave violation of the EP’s rules from those who preach about the adherence to constitutional norms at every forum,” they added.

Last week, Hungarian MEPs Tamás Deutsch and Kinga Gál of ruling Fidesz, István Ujhelyi of the Socialists and Gyula Winkler of Romania’s ethnic Hungarian RMDSZ party were elected to EP committee vice-chair positions.

However, the votes were delayed in the cases of certain committees, including the constitutional affairs committee (AFCO), the culture and education committee (CULT) and the civil liberties committee (LIBE).

July 16, 2019

Orbán cabinet voices support for new EU leaders

Talks are ongoing between Hungary and Norway on the distribution of funds to Hungarian civil groups from the Norwegian government under its Norway Grants scheme, but it is uncertain if an agreement will be reached, the head of the Prime Minister’s Office said on Wednesday. The new leaders of the European Union’s institutions should be “granted trust in advance”, he said.

Gergely Gulyás said in response to a question that

negotiations between the two countries had been made more difficult by the Norwegian government’s “insistence on supporting the civil organisations of [US billionaire] George Soros”.

Hungary, however, intends to spend the entirety of the grant on schemes aimed at improving the integration of the Roma community, he said.

In response to a question, Gulyás said he had no knowledge of the US president having been asked to mediate in the talks between the two countries.

Family protection action plan

On the topic of the government’s family protection action plan, Gulyás said the scheme’s implementation was going smoothly. Gulyás noted that the first four of the plan’s seven measures entered into effect on Monday.

The measures are attracting a lot of interest, Gulyás said, adding that

the government expects the number of applications for the various support schemes to reach record levels by the end of the month.

Constitutional amendment proposal

Gulyás was also asked about reports by news portal Index saying that the ruling parties were planning to draft a constitutional amendment proposal that would include a ban on adoption by same-sex couples if Budapest Mayor István Tarlós won re-election in the autumn. Gulyás commented on the reports by saying that “Index has gotten started on the election campaign as a member of [Parbeszed candidate] Gergely Karácsony’s team.” The PM’s Office chief said it was “completely absurd” to try to link the planned constitutional amendment with the municipal elections. He said there were no plans to change the rules around adoption, which currently allow adoption by heterosexual couples only.

Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA)

On another subject, Gulyás said he did not think the move to relocate research institutions of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA) to a new body with its own, independent budget chapter violated any European Union laws. He added that he did not expect the EU to launch an infringement procedure against Hungary over the amendment.

Gulyás voices support for new EU leaders

Gergely Gulyás said the Hungarian government and ruling Fidesz had different positions on several issues than some of the candidates, but “the head of the European Commission should act as guardian of the treaties despite those differences”. It is important that “our goals of stopping migration, protecting Christian culture and ensuring respect for a Europe of nations should not be the targets of attacks”, Gulyás said.

Gulyás insisted that the “cooperation and unity of the Visegrad countries has proved to be solid”. He added that

the V4 cooperation was the strongest such initiative within the EU. “Belonging to one region overrides the V4 prime ministers’ different [European] party affiliations,” he added.

Gulyás also said that neither Frans Timmermans nor Manfred Weber had the ability to promote consensus between member states. “In light of recent developments the spitzenkandidat-system has failed,” Gulyás said. He added that Hungary’s voters had supported Fidesz in the European Parliament “not because Weber was the spitzenkandidat of the European People’s Party but rather in spite of it”. He insisted that Weber had “insulted Hungarian voters” when he said he did not wish to be European Commission president if it was up to Fidesz’s support. As for Timmermans, Gulyás said that the focus of his activities was to “attack Hungary, Poland, and the Czech Republic” and “make the crudest, insinuating remarks on democratically elected leaders”.

Gulyás said he saw a good chance that Ursula von der Leyen, as commission head, would “mediate fairly between member states” and perform well in the role of guardian of the treaties.

“We don’t have a problem if somebody else has different views on migration, unless they want to force their position on us,” Gulyás said. “We just expect tolerance.”

July 4, 2019

Hungarian government protests Amnesty International ‘campaign for Ahmed H’

The parliamentary spokesman of the co-ruling Christian Democrats on Friday voiced indignation at press reports suggesting that Amnesty International, “a part of the Soros network”, was preparing to “launch a global campaign for Ahmed H”, a Syrian man earlier sentenced in Hungary for his participation in a migrant riot at Hungary’s southern border in 2015.

Nacsa insisted that

“Soros‘s organisations not only help migrants enter but continue supporting them even if they commit serious crimes”

and added that Ahmed H, who is currently awaiting expulsion from Hungary, is “simply a terrorist” who “still poses a risk to Hungarians’ security”.

Answering a question, Nacsa said that MEPs of the ruling parties had declined to support a Council of Europe (CoE) decision to launch a probe into the murder of Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, because “the case would be used to attack Malta, an EU member, and question its rule of law”.

The CoE decided on Wednesday to launch an investigation in the 2017 car bombing which killed Caruana Galizia, who had been looking into graft associated with the Maltese government.

June 29, 2019

Government spokesman: “Soros won’t decide EP vote’s outcome with his money”

The government will not allow “George Soros and his money” to decide the outcome of the European Parliament elections, government spokesman Istvan Hollik told a press conference on Thursday.

The spokesman insisted that the US billionaire and the NGOs he financed were attempting to manipulate the EP election.

Meanwhile, he responded to a question about Jean-Claude Juncker’s recent comments to CNN in which the European Commission president called nationalists “stupid” and berated populist leaders.

Hollik said it was “quite amazing” that anyone in Europe declaring their love for country and nation was held to be guilty of a sin. Juncker’s statement, he added, proved that “the pro-migration elite in Brussels” did not stand behind the people of Europe and their security but supported immigrants.

He said May 26 presented an “excellent opportunity” to remove pro-migration politicians from the European Union.

May 23, 2019

UN ‘sides with terrorist’ over Hungarians, says foreign minister in Geneva

The United Nations “has launched a shocking attack on Hungary”, with one of its commissioners planning to initiate procedures against the country “because Hungary’s courts have sentenced a certain Ahmed H. for terrorist activities,” the foreign minister said on Monday.

Speaking after a session of the United Nations‘s Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination in Geneva, Péter Szijjártó told MTI that Ahmed H. “led an attack against Hungarian police protecting the Hungarian border in which many police were injured”.

“This man is simply a terrorist,”

Szijjártó said, insisting that the Syrian national had sought “to allow hundreds, thousands of illegal migrants to enter the country”.

“The UN is now championing this terrorist; a human rights commissioner of the UN has informed the Hungarian government that they would initiate proceedings against Hungary concerning Ahmed H’s treatment in the country,” Szijjarto said.

“This human rights commissioner is also one of George Soros‘s people; he is one of the leaders of the Open Society Foundation,”

the minister said. “It is clear that the UN, similarly to Brussels, is under Soros’s influence as regards migration,” he insisted. “In this sense there is no difference between New York, Geneva, and Brussels,” Szijjártó said.

April 29, 2019

George Soros: Hungarian PM Orbán has turned me into the supervillain of an alleged plot – video

The Hungarian-born American billionaire was given Don Ridenhour Bravery Award this year. During the ceremony, he spoke about the Hungarian government and the Prime Minister.

This was the 16th time that somebody was awarded by The Nation magazine and the Fertel Foundation – Nepszava reported. The namesake of the award, Ron Ridenhour, was a Vietnam veteran revealing the details of the My Lai massacre.

In his speech, the philanthropist billionaire highlighted that he and what he stands for were awarded “at a time when the values of the open society are under attack around the world including the United States.” Thus, he accepted the award in the name of all those brave and committed people he has worked with over the years through the Open Society Foundations. He added that there are people who have the courage to speak out for accountability, justice and human dignity. “Today, many of them are facing concentrated efforts to silence them and to demonize them. Those in power brand them as enemies of the people. They make up

conspiracy theories to discredit their good work.

All because they stand up for human rights, particularly the rights of the most vulnerable.”

George Soros said that in Hungary, the government of PM Viktor Orbán had turned him into the supervillain of an alleged plot to destroy the supposedly Christian identity of the Hungarian nation. He added that even though he does not live in Budapest, the leader of the Hungarian Helsinki Committee, Márta Pardavi, for example, does. She and many others “have to live with this kind of

vilification and orchestrated hostility

every day because of their work to protect the legal rights of migrants and refugees.”

He mentioned that in Turkey, President Erdogan has been holding captive one of his closest friends, Osman Kavala, who has been one of the greatest supporters of his foundations in the country, since October 2017. According to the Front Line Defenders Group, an NGO, 321 human rights activists were murdered in 2018 worldwide. In fact, 23 of them were killed in Brazil, and among them, there was a local politician, Marielle Franco, who spoke out for the poor communities of Rio de Janeiro. “President Bolsonaro joins

today’s gallery of would-be dictators.

He is a great admirer and imitator of President Trump,” he added.

Finally, he donated the prize money associated with the award to the Hungarian Spectrum, an online English language publication providing daily updates of what happens in Hungarian politics. He said that it exposes what PM Orbán is telling his people to the world; thus, it deserves to be better known and supported. The blog was founded by Éva Balogh S. who is a dissident of 1956 and a retired History professor at Yale University.

Here, you can watch the whole speech:

April 23, 2019

Over half million signatures collected in support of PM Orbán’s programme

The ruling parties have collected more than half million signatures in support of Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s programme announced last week, Fidesz group leader Máté Kocsis said on Sunday.

The signature drive will continue with the help of some 20,000 activists, he told public Kossuth radio.

In line with the programme’s first proposal, the right to manage migration must be taken away from “Brussels bureaucrats” and returned to national governments, he said.

Additionally, no country should be forced to take in migrants, no migrants should be allowed to enter Europe without valid documents, the scheme of issuing anonymous pre-paid bank cards to migrants should be stopped and migrant visas should not be granted. Also, organisations linked to US financier George Soros supporting migration should not be granted European Union aid, nobody should suffer discrimination in Europe for claiming to be Christian and the EU should have anti-migration leaders, Kocsis said, listing further proposals in the programme.

The group leader said it was appalling that the current leaders in Brussels were handing out money to uncontrolled masses by way of “migrant cards”. Fidesz believes a significant part of Europe was dissatisfied because people are aware of the serious terrorism risks of uncontrolled migration, he added.

Kocsis reiterated that the European parliamentary elections in May would have unprecedented historic significance. What’s at stake is whether Europe will have pro-migration or anti-migration leaders, he added.

“Voters will also have to decide if Europe should continue to belong to Europeans or they give up their place to people from other cultures and civilisations,” Kocsis said.

Featured image: MTI

April 15, 2019

Fidesz ‘won EPP battle’, says state secretary

Hungary’s ruling Fidesz emerged as the winner of this week’s “battle in the European People’s Party”, a state secretary at the Prime Minister’s Office said on Friday, adding that the compromise made in Brussels would help the EPP.

“The pro-migration branch of the EPP and the leftist parties backed by [US billionaire] George Soros failed to get Fidesz expelled,” Balázs Orbán told public news channel M1, adding that this had allowed the bloc to maintain its unity.

It was ultimately Fidesz’s proposal that the EPP approved, under which an inquiry committee will be formed with the Hungarian ruling party voluntarily suspending its rights in the grouping, he said.

“Incidentally, the way I see it, membership in a European parliamentary party, from a Hungarian point of view, is never a goal, but a means for the ruling parties and the government to represent Hungary’s interests in the European Parliament,” the state secretary added.

So the outcome of the debate will depend on how Hungary is able to represent its interests in the long run and in what form it will be able to find allies to protect Christian values and to stop migration, he said.

Featured image: Collage – www.facebook.com/ManfredWeber & MTI

March 22, 2019

EPP needs strong Fidesz, says Fidesz’s top candidate for Ep election 2019

Europe needs a strong European People’s Party (EPP) and the EPP, in turn, needs a strong Fidesz, Hungarian Justice Minister László Trócsányi, the leading party’s top candidate for the upcoming European parliamentary election, told German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung in an interview published on Sunday.

Trócsányi voiced hope that the EPP’s meeting on Fidesz’s membership, scheduled on March 20, “will make a wise decision, one that is favourable for Fidesz”.

Regarding the government’s billboard campaign featuring European Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker and American financier George Soros, one of the issues at the root of the debate, Trócsányi said that

“we were not attacking Juncker’s person but the bad decisions made by the thought leaders in the EC.”

Soros Jucker billboard campaign Fidesz — Photo: Daily News Hungary

The EC, he said, has in recent years acted “as a political commission” although its role should be to preserve the “spirit of European treaties” and to follow the guidelines of the European Council, he said. “Instead, we see the influence of the council waning and the EC attempting to define policies,” he said.

Regarding administrative courts, which will start operation in Hungary as a separate branch of the judiciary in January next year, Trócsányi said that although the justice minister will appoint the judges, his competencies are limited.

The system has built-in checks and balances “that make it impossible for the minister to act arbitrarily,” he said.

To access the article in full, in German, please visit German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

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March 11, 2019

Fidesz MP: NGOs must comply with Hungarian law

In Hungary, civil organisations “operate freely” and “are thriving”, a ruling Fidesz lawmaker said after a meeting of the justice committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) on Monday.

But every single civil organisation must stick to the law, and that applies to NGOs that support illegal migration, Barna Pál Zsigmond told MTI by phone from Paris.

Overall, 60,000 civil organisations operate in Hungary, he noted, adding that around a dozen are “regularly in the government’s crosshairs”.

The Fidesz MP said he had made it clear to the CoE committee that the government cannot tolerate the activities of NGOs that aid illegal migration and break Hungarian laws. The Hungarian people have made it clear that they “want nothing to do with illegal migration”, he added.

The debate in PACE’s Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights is a part of the upcoming European parliamentary election, Zsigmond said.

Referring to financier George Soros, he said it was “strange” that a “pro-Soros Ukrainian raporteur” had proposed putting the situation of NGOs in Hungary, and the country’s “stop Soros” package of laws against supporting illegal migration, on the agenda.

It was unsurprising, he added, that the rapporteur had also singled out Hungary for a country visit.

Italian representatives, among others, have clearly opposed attempts to frame Hungary’s anti-migration policies as an attack on civil organisations, Zsigmond said. This shows that other countries also recognise this problem, he added.

March 5, 2019

Soros political player for decades, tells Fidesz state secretary to BBC

Hungarian state secretary for international communications and relations Zoltán Kovács has told the BBC in an interview that financier George Soros became a political player two decades ago.

Kovács said in the HardTalk interview broadcast on Monday that this was clear from Soros’s own statements as well from the activities of the Open Society Foundation and Project Syndicate, which he said were the main conduits of the billionaire’s ideas about Europe.

Soros’s institutional network wields great power without ever having had an electoral mandate, he added.

NGOs linked to Soros have nothing to do with civil society, he said, adding that civil society is something that is built from the ground up. There are currently 65,000 such organisations in Hungary, he added.

Asked about an allegation by the head of the Hungarian Helsinki Committee NGO concerning harassment by the government, Kovács said the dispute was with a few dozen organisations and had nothing to do with civil groups run by ordinary people.

He said that ever since the migration crisis, the gap between the “western European left-liberal political elite” and voters in European Union member states had grown.

Meanwhile, Kovács denied that the Central European University (CEU) had left Budapest, saying that only one part of the CEU’s activities, which breached Hungarian laws, had left the country.

Michael Ignatieff, the CEU’s president and rector, told the BBC that CEU had been forced to split into two parts by the government. He said the government was unwilling to sign an agreement which, under a law passed in 2017, was necessary for the CEU to continue its activities in Budapest. In the absence of the agreement, the university cannot issue US accredited diplomas in Budapest, he noted.

Ignatieff insisted that the Hungarian government was “a regime that is hostile to any free institution”.

He also characterised the Hungarian government’s position on Soros as a “fantastical conspiracy theory”. Soros’s ability to influence developments in Hungary “is virtually zero”, he added.

Featured image: www.facebook.com/OpenSocietyFoundations

March 5, 2019

BBC HARDtalk interview with the Hungarian Foreign Minister Szijjártó – VIDEO

BBC HARDtalk’s Stephen Sackur made an interesting interview with the Hungarian Foreign Minister Szijjártó – Video at the bottom

The Hungarian government has put up posters throughout the country which feature EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and George Soros, ahead of EU elections in May, with the words: “You too have a right to know what Brussels is preparing!” Read more details HERE.

As we wrote many times, the Orbán cabinet has long criticised the EU’s stance on migration and has accused the Hungarian-born billionaire George Soros of promoting a pro-migration agenda for Europe.

“George Soros definitely has a totally different vision about the future of Europe and the future of Hungary compared to what we have,” Mr Szijjárto told Hardtalk’s Stephen Sackur.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTfSxpN2XtI

February 27, 2019