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Soros: Crusader for human rights

By Rep. Peter Somssich - Portsmouth | Jul 25, 2020

Do not believe the conspiracy theories currently circulating about George Soros, the internationally-know billionaire philanthropist. Phony claims include, undermining governments worldwide, plotting with and funding opposition groups to overthrew legitimate governments, and most recently, claims that he is supporting domestic terrorism in the USA, including violence against police.

As someone who has been involved with human rights issues worldwide, with 40 years alone as a case-worker for Amnesty International, and as a Hungarian-American, like Mr. Soros, I have not seen any credible evidence that Mr. Soros is up to no good. Quite the contrary.

Yes, Mr. Soros, a graduate of the London School of Economics used his business training to speculate in currencies, and made himself into a billionaire. However, since the 1980s he has been advocating and investing his own fortune to build up democratic civic society groups and NGOs in the former Communist countries in Eastern Europe, to help avoid future dictatorships and authoritarian strongmen.

While both Mr. Soros and I were born in Budapest, he managed as a Jew to survive Nazi-occupied Hungary and left his country in 1947 when he was 17 years old, my family on the other hand fled Hungary in 1956 when I was 6 years old after a failed uprising against the dictatorial government supported by the Soviet Union.

Subsequently, I tried to be an advocate for human rights in Eastern Europe with various organizations, while Mr. Soros starting in 1979, invested his own money in his Open Society Foundations to encourage civic engagement, reduce poverty, increase government transparency, and fight corruption and Antisemitism. Soros has now invested more than $12 billion, which includes numerous scholarships and the founding of the Central European University in Budapest.

All of these initiatives have attracted many enemies. Not from civil society groups or ordinary citizens, but from corrupt politicians, authoritarian leaders, nationalist groups, as well as Antisematic organizations.

Ironically, one of those authoritarian leaders is Hungary’s current Prime Minister Viktor Orban. Mr. Orban, who has been warned and sanctioned by the European Union for dismantling democratic and transparent institutions in Hungary, received a 1-year scholarship to Oxford College in the UK courtesy of the Open Society Foundation as a 26-year-old student.

As Hungary transitioned to a democracy Viktor Orban was one of the important student leaders demanding democratic elections, a transparent government and the removal of all Soviet troops from Hungary, at great personal risk. When democracy was established, he became an important leader of his FIDESZ party (the current ruling party). However, whether he changed his political view and became, as my Hungarian uncle would say about Hungarian politicians, ” an opportunist”, or he just wanted to draw votes away from the new neo-Nazi party, the JOBBIK, he has now become the authoritarian leader that is constantly attempting to disassembly democratic institutions. He instituted such strict restrictions on non-Hungarian organizations that the Central European University was forced to relocate from Budapest to Berlin, Germany. Mr. Orban has led the way to demonizing Mr. Soros for all of Hungary’s problems. On a recent trip to Hungary as I was leaving the airport, I came face-to-face with a giant billboard depicting Mr. Soros and admonishing me not to “let this man tell you what to do”. My taxi-driver also confirmed to me that not a day goes by without the radio or television reporting a government problem that is blamed on Mr. Soros. On my visit to Budapest, I also met with a group of students who had organized themselves as volunteers to assist legal emigrants newly arrived in Hungary with language training and help to integrate into Hungarian society. They were partially funded by the Open Society Foundation and were doing good work until the Central European University was forced out of Budapest during one of the anti-Soros campaigns. Now they tell me, that it is too dangerous for them and their emigrant friends they assist to continue the integration work.

Recently, new attacks have been directed at the new mayor of Budapest, Mr. Karacsony, because he belongs to the opposition coalition. I guess his election is also being blamed on Mr. Soros.

Now American conservatives and nationalist groups in the USA are claiming that Mr. Soros is inciting violence against the police and paying demonstrators.

Don’t fall for their conspiracies.

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