Money from Brussels to replace funds from Soros

Hungarian left-wing media reports widely covering the news of the Open Society Foundations withdrawing from Europe were merely meant to distract attention from the fact that after the reconfiguration of Soros’s network, the European Union will invest far more money than earlier to finance projects launched by the stock exchange speculator. As part of the restructuring, Soros and his network will shift priorities, with the main focus placed on the East Central European region in the future.

Berlin, 2017. június 8. Soros György magyar származású amerikai üzletember, a New York-i Soros Fund Management befektetési társaság elnöke az Európai Roma Mûvészeti és Kulturális Intézet megalapításának alkalmából rendezett berlini ünnepségen 2017. június 8-án. (MTI/EPA/Clemens Bilan) Fotó: CLEMENS BILAN

While left-wing media outlets in Hungary have been widely reporting that George Soros's Open Society Foundations (OSF) are retreating from Europe and discontinuing their activities on the continent, what in fact is taking place is reorganization aimed to help global progressive networks maximize their influence 

But let's look at the details!

Crocodile tears for OSF

For weeks, the Hungarian left-wing press has been trying to create the impression in the public mind that George Soros's network is pulling out of Europe. Such distracting headlines were used by Nepszava, Klubradio or Alfahir, among others. In addition to OSF's alleged withdrawal, opposition newspapers have reported about staff complaining about "headcount reduction" and "cuts in funds",  suggesting that Soros's empire is largely abandoning its political ambitions.

In a bitterly worded, lengthy article, 444.hu reported on how shocked staff in the offices of Open Society Foundations across Europe were to hear the news of layoffs. According to the portal, tried and tested, experienced staff  are facing dismissal, which will undermine the network's efficiency. The portal also sought to give the impression that OSF is significantly reducing its activities in Hungary, as Alex Soros does not have the same emotional ties to Hungary as his father. However, 444.hu also noted that George Soros donated 18 billion dollars to his foundations in 2017, more than his donations combined since 1984.

"With Soros's decades of donations failing to find followers in substantial number, the expected withdrawal could be painful," HVG noted. Regarding the alleged agony of the network's employees, the economic weekly wrote that the staff of the organizations trying to find funds to replace the money coming from Soros only hope that the current media coverage will lead to the OSF taking into account the needs of the regions when hammering out the details.

False praising of Soros

It is noteworthy that none of the reports discuss how Soros tried to interfere in Hungary's internal affairs, how he tried to bring down the Hungarian government and why he backed anti-government (pseudo) NGOs. Gabor Horn, chairman of the Republikon Foundation, was also silent about these issues when he thanked the foundation for its activities on the occasion of its "withdrawal": "Soros's foundation has helped wherever it could, often taking over public duties from the state. As it is impossible to list all the beneficiaries, here is a random selection: Youth Choir of the Reformed College of Debrecen, National Archives of Hungary, editorial office of Vigilia, Viktor Orban, Rehabilitation Center for People with Disabilities,  the Hungarian Hospice Program. For all of this, we are grateful and thankful."

Interestingly, writing about OSF's "departure", the G7 portal tried to downplay the two to three billion forints a year that the foundations spent on Hungarian projects, noting that lesser-known organisations such as the Power of Humanity Foundation,  the Association of Alternative Communities or the Civil College Foundation have received funding between 2 and 2.3 million dollars each over five ears.

Alex Soros denies the rumors

However, rumors of a complete withdrawal have been refuted by Alex Soros himself in a recent op-ed published in Politico.

According to George Soros's son, the restructuring means a shift in focus, with plans to increase activities in Eastern Europe, for example. In addition to continuing a number of programs, they will also support the CEU, which is partly based in Budapest. "News reports that the Open Society Foundations (OSF) and Soros are ‘leaving Europe’ are misleading. We are not leaving," Alex Soros wrote in his letter.

In his evaluation of the current state of Europe, he wrote that "it’s clear that our foundation needs to change — just as it did after the fall of the Berlin Wall, when our efforts were centered on EU accession for Central and Eastern European nations; and just as it did after the economic crisis of 2008, when we stepped up our work in Brussels and Western Europe at scale for the first time." His words make it clear that the Central and Eastern European region, including Hungary, continues to be of strategic importance to the Soros network.

 

EU elite in the pocket of the speculator

The Soros network has been working for years to establish new financing channels. Earlier, Magyar Nemzet published a series of articles showing how Brussels’ money regularly appears in Soros’s organizations in the form of various grants.

In 2017, George Soros personally met with Jean-Claude Juncker, then president of the European Commission. Michael Roth, State Secretary for European Affairs in Angela Merkel's government, also helped smooth the relationship, the Hungarian 444.hu portal wrote. It was revealed years ago that the EU bureaucracy is effectively in the pocket of George Soros. In August 2016, the leak portal DC Leaks published some 2,500 documents from the OSF's internal database, including a publication entitled 'Reliable Allies in the European Parliament (2014-2019)'. According to the list, George Soros had some kind of influence over 226 politicians in the EP, which consisted of 751 MEPs. With this number, Soros had the largest political group in the EU body.

In today's terms, this also means that Soros can pursue his interests in Europe without direct funding, since EU funding is decided by his trusted allies, who generously donate sums to NGOs and press organizations that profess the open society ethos.

 

Money flows from Brussels to the Soros network

Therefore, we can only talk about a shift in focus, and there will also be a shift in funding, with the EU supporting the Soros network's objectives with even more resources than before.

The European Commission will take over the funding of soft power projects previously funded by the OSF. Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values (CERV), a program recently set up by the Commission, will allow 'NGOs' to apply for funding for a period of six years, bypassing national governments. The program's total budget for the 2021-2027 budget period is €1.5 billion, of which €50 million will be allocated to NGOs in each member state over the next two years for the ‘protection of EU values’ alone. The Hungarian Okotars Foundation, for example, will be able to distribute €3.4 million or HUF 1.4 billion in grants to Hungarian organizations.

Political Capital and Magyar Jeti Zrt, the publisher of the 444.hu portal, will also receive staggering sums from Brussels for their joint project Lakmusz (Litmus). As the Tuzfalcsoport blog has discovered, the "fact-checking" center Lakmusz – which actually has censorship functions – has been awarded a contract by the European Commission worth hundreds of thousands of euros until 2025. The beneficiaries of the contract, worth more than HUF 500 million, include the IDEA Foundation and the Mertek Mediaelemzo Muhely (Mertek Media Analysis Workshop), which has also received funding from the Soros network in the past.

Over the next few days, Magyar Nemzet will publish a series of articles on the objectives and organizations funded by Brussels institutions, and the sums granted to them.