George Soros becomes the Orbán regime’s boogeyman

What the highest ranking representatives of the Orbán government are doing by invoking the name of the 85 year old American-Hungarian billionaire philanthropist George Soros, as the secret source of all evil, is truly unbecoming of any EU member state and is an overall embarrassment. In an effort to distract public attention from the growing corruption scandals around the Central Bank of Hungary, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán himself and key ministers in his government, most notably János Lázár, have begun to disseminate conspiracy theories about Mr. Soros, a Holocaust survivor, and his alleged aims of global political and economic hegemony.

On Thursday, János Lázár–the Minister in charge of the Hungarian Prime Minister’s Office, suggested that U.S. President Barack Obama and George Soros had a plan to dramatically increase the proportion of Muslims in Europe. Mr. Lázár remarked that Mr. Soros was trying to prepare the way for more migrants to arrive in Europe. “Obama’s standard bearer is George Soros”–commented Mr. Lázár. According to Mr. Lázár’s recollection, the American-Hungarian billionaire previously declared that he is “the primary opponent” of the Orbán government, and now aims to gain political influence in Eastern European capitals, mentioning Budapest and Kiev by name.

Mr. Lázár added that this year, Hungary granted refugee status to 221 asylum-seekers, but that anyone caught entering Hungary illegally must be kept within 8 km of the border and removed from the country as soon as possible.

John Earnest, a White House spokesman, was asked about Mr. Lázár’s accusations by an American journalist who noted that the Hungarian minister had claimed that the U.S. wanted to settle large numbers of Muslims in Europe.

‘I didn’t see those comments. I’m not sure they’re worthy of a response.”

On Friday, Prime Minister Orbán himself continued with his attacks on Mr. Soros, during his weekly morning interview on Kossuth Rádió. Mr. Orbán was reacting to passing criticism of Hungary (and Poland) by former U.S. President Bill Clinton.

Poland and Hungary, two countries that would not be free but for the United States and the long Cold War, have now decided this democracy is too much trouble. They want Putin-like leadership: Just give me an authoritarian dictatorship and keep the foreigners out,” said Mr. Clinton of the populist governments in Budapest and Warsaw.

Mr. Orbán’s response was swift and it involved Mr. Soros:

These are not accidental slips of the tongue. And [the number of] these slips or remarks have been multiplying since we are living in the era of the migrant crisis. And we all know that behind the leaders of the Democratic Party, we must see George Soros. George Soros published his six points supporting the Muslim migration to Europe, in which he announced that at least one million Muslims should be allowed [into Europe] each year, that they must be provided a safe path and that Europe should be happy to get such a chance and shouldn’t be defending against it. He also said that it will cost a lot of money, which he would loan. So, here, in Central Europe a shadow power exists, which is linked to George Soros, he is one of the most important sponsors of the Democratic Party, so I have to say that although the mouth belongs to Clinton, the voice belongs to George Soros.”

Viktor Orbán speaking on Kossuth Rádió on Friday morning. Photo: MTI

Viktor Orbán speaking on Kossuth Rádió on Friday morning. Photo: MTI

Mr. Orbán then added, specifically speaking about the migrant crisis:

“Nobody would want to hand over the keys of his apartment to a total stranger.” The prime minister also noted that if his government had agreed to the EU “quotas” on settling some refugees in Hungary and other member states, nobody would be able to recognize Budapest within 10 to 20 minutes, as it would be full of immigrants and Muslims.

Interestingly, while Mr. Orbán and his party (but especially his colleagues in the Christian Democratic People’s Party) have long sounded the alarm bells around Hungary’s low birth rate and have prioritized various pronatalist policies and rhetoric, the prime minister now declared that having a smaller and shrinking population is not necessarily a problem. “Why should we have to grow in terms of our population, at the same speed that other countries may be growing?”–asked Mr. Orbán.

Hungary is pressing ahead with its demagogic referendum on the “forced settlement” of migrants in Hungary. President János Áder will likely schedule the referendum for September 2016. Until then, it appears that Mr. Orbán and his government will continue stoking fears of the “shadow power” linked to George Soros.

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