Jews ask Hungarian PM to end antisemitic ‘bad dream’

BUDAPEST (Reuters) – Hungarian Jews said on Thursday that Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s billboard campaign against migration and foreign influence, using the image of US financier George Soros, is a proxy for antisemitism.

They urged the nationalist Orban to halt the campaign. “Please make sure this bad dream ends as soon as possible,” Andras Heisler, chairman of the Federation of Hungarian Jewish Federations (Mazsihisz), said in an emailed statement.

Orban’s spokesman said the campaign had nothing to do with antisemitism but rather sought only to counter what he called Soros’s attempts to unduly change immigration policies in Hungary.

Orban has locked horns with fellow European Union members in the west of the bloc over his opposition to immigration and liberal values and has criticized Soros – a major supporter of democracy and human rights causes – in increasingly sharp tones.

Orban, who faces elections next year, long proclaimed zero tolerance for antisemitism, though he has more recently risked angering Israel and Jews with remarks apparently meant to court far-right voters.

His government has conducted a “national consultation” on issues of foreign influence and mass immigration, asking people if they were open to allowing either. Voters who responded rejected both and Orban launched a massive follow-up campaign.

The campaign focuses on Soros, 86, a Hungarian Jew who emigrated after World War II, made a fortune in the United States and has long been heavily involved with groups promoting liberal democratic and open-border values in post-Communist Eastern Europe, a cause at odds with Orban’s worldview.

Billboards around Hungary and full-page ads in media across the Central European country depict Soros grinning contentedly against a blue background with the inscription: “Don’t let George Soros have the last laugh.”

Some Soros billboards have been defaced with the words “Stinking Jew” in magic marker. Around 100,000 Jews live in Hungary.

“This campaign, while not openly antisemitic, clearly has the potential to ignite uncontrolled emotions, including antisemitism,” the Federation of Hungarian Jewish Congregations said in its emailed statement.