Foreign interference in Poland's election: unmasking Soros-run organizations' campaign role - Part 2

All the financial, political and media support needed to win a majority in the elections was provided to Poland's leftist-liberal side from abroad. Although foreign interference in Hungary was averted last year, the events in Poland show what lies ahead in the next elections, for Hungarians who insist on national self-determination.

Varsó, 2023. október 15. Szavazó a lengyel parlamenti választásokon Varsóban 2023. október 15-én. A választásokkal egy idõben népszavazást is rendeznek az Európai Unió migrációs csomagjáról, az állami vagyon privatizációjáról, a nyugdíjkorhatárról, valamint a fehérorosz határon emelt acélkerítésrõl. MTI/AP/Michal Dyjuk Fotó: Michal Dyjuk

George Soros's purchase of media outlets and funding of NGOs, the withdrawal of EU funds and political pressure exercises, and the interference from Action for Democracy – all these combined helped Poland's leftist-liberal side ahead of the elections held on October 15. From a Hungarian perspective, compared to the 2022 Hungarian elections, serious foreign forces have been mobilized for a change of government in Poland.

The stakes were high: moving further towards a United States of Europe, the adoption of mandatory migrant quotas, and supplying Ukraine with money and weapons.

In a series of articles, Magyar Nemzet presents the foreign influence determining the Polish elections, because this also offers serious lessons from the point of view of Hungarian national self-determination. In part 2, we explore the financing of certain NGOs by Soros's network and the political role of these organizations and individuals.

The Fundacja im. Stefana Batorego, or Batory Foundation, founded by George Soros in the late 80s, plays a key role in his activities in Poland. Through this organization, the American stock exchange speculator supported media outlets, organizations, protests and political parties seeking to bring down right-wing government in power since 2015.  After the defeat suffered by his allies in 2015, one such attempt was to influence the outcome of the 2019 elections through street demonstrations, primarily through providing financial support for a Polish anti-government feminist movement called "czarny protest."

In 2017, Soros-backed activists in Poland envisioned Euromaidan adopting the Ukrainian model, and in response, Polish authorities banned from the country the head of Open Dialogue Foundation, the stock market speculator's Ukrainian organization.

Then, in 2020, the Batory Foundation joined the election campaign supporting Rafal Trzaskowski, the opposition candidate running against right-wing president Andrzej Duda. As Magyar Nemzet reported at the time, the confrontation between conservative and liberal positions was one of the main elements in the campaign. In his program, President Duda advocated conservative family values, marriage that is a union between a man and a woman, and ruled out granting the right to adopt children to homosexuals. Experts backed by Soros lined up in favor of a position offering even more rights to sexual minorities.

In addition, experts with links to the Batory Foundation expressed opinions and recommendations favorable to the opposition regarding the conduct of the presidential election, the holding of which was uncertain for a long time.  In the spring of 2020, due to the coronavirus pandemic and constitutional concerns, they spoke out against the holding of the elections, in opposition to the stand taken by the right-wing ruling Law and Justice party (PiS), which supported President Duda.

However, after Malgorzata Kidawa-Blonska, initially considered the main opposition candidate, withdrew due to her low support, and Trzaskowski joined the race, and his chances steadily improved, the same experts changed their view.

Concerned about democracy and the rule of law in Poland, they began to call on voters to participate in the elections.

By the way, these concerns are the main topics organizations with ties to George Soros talk about in Poland's public life.

However, this was not the only direction of action taken in the political activities of Soros-backed organizations. The Polish wPolityce news portal reported that in the midst of the pandemic, the Soros-funded Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights was concerned that in their view, the members of the Poland's National Council of the Judiciary had not been elected in accordance with the rules. 

At the time, Gregor Puppinck, head of the European Center for Law and Justice, pointed out that Soros-linked organizations cooperate in many ways with the representatives of the mainstream European legal concept. As part of this, the Open Society Foundations network also has influence in the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, which increased the legal pressure on Duda and the Polish ruling party in the European institutions, which once again only benefited Trzaskowski in the campaign.

The Open Society Foundation (OSF), one of Soros's foundations, also supports less significant projects and initiatives, which it considers important because they advocate ideas akin to Soros's ideology. An example of this is the Stanislaw Brzozowski Association, the publisher of the radical leftist daily Krytyka Polityczna. In 2021, the organization earned 5.35 million Polish zlote in revenues, with 1.9 million coming from Soros's foundation. The association also published the Polish translation of the book In Defence of Open Society by George Soros.

An insight into the Soros-style media support philosophy was provided by an interview with Andrey Nosko – not intended for the public – which was reported by Magyar Nemzet in February 2022 and by several Polish media outlets subsequently. Formerly active at OSF, Nosko oversaw the distribution of grants to think tanks in Europe. "The problem is that there are far fewer foreign correspondents in the mainstream media than necessary. This leads to a situation where it is very easy to castigate Poland and Hungary without any real arguments," he said, among other things.

Many foreign journalists turn directly to people connected with OSF for help when looking for experts.

They, in turn, recommend the staff of institutions, think tanks and media outlets that are similar to them in terms of ideology and finance. This gives the liberal network the opportunity to multiply the number of biased reports.

At the same time, there are organisations financed by George Soros that represent the speculator's interests not in Poland, but at the European level, and attacked the Polish government alongside Hungary's government. For example, Soros's right-hand man, Gerald Knaus, head of the European Stability Initiative, demanded in September 2021 that the right-wing Polish government open its borders and take in migrants.

Knaus went even further than this in the summer of 2021, when he pressed for imposing a fine of five billion euros on Poland, citing the usual rule of law argument, and on another occasion, he also proposed that the EU should cut all funds to Poland and Hungary.

For some reason, the supposedly independent bureaucracy in Brussels has adopted this strategy in recent years against the two governments that stand up for their national sovereignty.

Cover photo: Illustration (Photo: MTI)