The Hungarian magazine Figyelo, led by one of Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s allies, has published 200 names of scholars, journalists and human rights activists from a local NGO (the Helsinki Committee, the Civil Liberties Union and Amnesty International), branding them "mercenaries" of the US billionaire of Hungarian origin George Soros. According to the media, these people work within a network run by the financial tycoon, who reportedly funds pro-immigrant organizations and civic movements in different countries for his personal benefit.
The magazine announced that more names are to be published.
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The move was severely criticized by some activists and politicians. The president of the Central European University, which academics were mentioned in the blacklist, Michael Ignatieff branded the blacklist "contemptible." According to the rector, it was "a flagrant attempt at intimidation that is dangerous for academic freedom and therefore for all of Hungarian academic life."
The CEU is among the Hungarian institutions that are generously funded by Soros's Open Society Foundation. The foundation itself has repeatedly been accused of acting on behalf of George Soros to meddle in the internal affairs of other nations – primarily their immigration policies – for Soros’s personal benefit. For instance, he has reportedly long provided funding to anti-Brexit campaigning groups and other organizations that serve his globalist agenda, with some describing his activity as “election meddling.”
In the run up to the Hungarian parliamentary elections, numerous government officials and members of the ruling Fidesz Party warned that Soros was also attempting to meddle in the elections and had employed around 2,000 people as part of his efforts to influence its outcome.
However, in April’s elections Orban secured a third term as his Fidesz Party won a strong majority in the country's parliament, gleaning two-thirds of the seats.
