Days ahead of the Hungary’s national election, the Associated Press (AP) has published an article slamming Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán as “far-right”, citing “experts” from foundations funded by left-wing billionaire George Soros.
The article, entitled, “Far-right views going mainstream in much of Central Europe”, claims that many countries in Central Europe, including Hungary and Poland, are championing “taboo” views.
The authors of the piece cite Tom Junes, a historian with the Human and Social Studies Foundation in Sofia, Bulgaria, who said: “There is something broader going on in the region which has produced a patriotic, nativist, conservative discourse through which far-right ideas managed to become mainstream.”
Later, the Hungarian government campaign against the influence of pro-mass migration NGOs funded by Hungarian-born Soros is referred to as, “demonizing the financier and philanthropist”, and “falsely portraying the Hungarian-born Holocaust survivor as an advocate of uncontrolled immigration into Europe”.
The campaign, which has involved passing laws to foster greater transparency for foreign-funded organisations operating in Hungary, was also labelled “a state-sponsored conspiracy theory with anti-Semitic overtones”, despite Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressing support for Orbán in his campaigns against anti-Semitism.
Soros has also been recently revealed to have attempted to directly influence Hungarian politics through lobbying Germany into pressuring the Hungarians to get rid of the new rules and regulations on NGOs.
‘Caught Red Handed’: Soros-Funded Body Lobbying Germany to Put Pressure on Hungary https://t.co/e6DnZe0N0u
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) March 20, 2018
What the AP authors fail to mention is that the Human and Social Studies Foundation (HSSF) is directly funded, according to their website, by George Soros’s Open Society Foundations.
Peter Kreko, director of the Budapest-based Political Capital Institute thinktank, is also cited as an expert and the authors once again fail to mention that the Political Capital Institute is also funded by Soros and Open Society Foundations as their website attests.
One of the authors of the piece, Warsaw-based journalist Vanessa Gera, has written a number of pro-Soros articles for AP in the past including an article entitled, “Demonization of philanthropist Soros recalls old anti-Semitic conspiracies” in May of 2017, and “Soros Hits Back at Hungary’s PM, Denounces ‘Mafia State'” published in June of the same year.
Gera has also been slammed in Poland for her reporting on last year’s Independence Day March in which she referred to participants as “Fascists and other far-right extremists”.
Hungary, Republikon poll:
Fidesz-KDNP-EPP: 49% (+1)
Jobbik-NI: 19%
MSZP-P-MLP-S&D-G/EFA-ALDE: 17%
DK-S&D: 5% (-1)
LMP-G/EFA: 4% (-1)
Együtt-*: 2%
Momentum-*: 2%Field work: 10/03/18 – 23/03/18
Sample size: 1000— Europe Elects (@EuropeElects) April 3, 2018
Despite the pressure from Soros and his allies, current polls show the Fidesz party of Viktor Orbán in a commanding lead and with the potential to govern alongside their partners, the Christian Democratic People’s Party, in a majority following Sunday’s vote.
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