George Soros’s Foundation Will Leave Hungary over Government’s ‘Repressive’ ‘Stop Soros’ Bill
Reuters, May 15, 2018
The pro-democracy group founded by billionaire George Soros is leaving Hungary after its Prime Minister announced crackdowns on non-governmental organisations.
Hungarian-American Soros’s Open Society Foundations (OSF) said it is moving to Germany, leaving what it called ‘an increasingly repressive political and legal environment’ in Hungary.
The right-wing government of Viktor Orban announced the new restrictions yesterday, under a law dubbed the ‘Stop Soros’ bill.
Prime Minister Orban, who won a landslide election victory last month, has repeatedly accused Soros and his organisation of encouraging migrants and undermining the national culture.
The OSF said it would continue to support human rights work in Hungary as well as projects linked to arts, media freedom, transparency, education and health care, but it would move its Budapest-based international operations and staff to Berlin.
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The NGO legislation is expected to be one of the first laws passed by the new parliament.
It would allow the interior minister to ban any NGOs active in the immigration field deemed to pose a ‘national security risk’. It would also impose a 25-percent tax on foreign donations to NGOs that back migration.
