Hungarian government to end anti-Soros poster campaign

BUDAPEST (Reuters) – An anti-migrant billboard campaign by the Hungarian government that features the image of US financier George Soros will come to an end on Saturday, the government spokesman said on Thursday.

The billboards and full-page media ads that have appeared across Hungary depict a smiling Soros – a vocal critic of Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s right-wing government – with the caption: “Don’t let Soros have the last laugh.”

Some Soros billboards have been defaced with graffiti that reads “Stinking Jew.”

The Federation of Hungarian Jewish Federations (Mazsihisz) has urged Orban to halt the campaign, which a spokesman for Soros said earlier this week was reminiscent of “Europe’s darkest hours.” Orban’s government has strongly denied that the billboard campaign is antisemitic.

Government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs told Reuters the campaign, which was a follow-up to the launch by Orban of a “national consultation” on issues of foreign influence and mass immigration, would expire on Saturday.

“The six-week follow-up campaign will run out on July 15,” Kovacs said in an emailed reply to Reuters questions.

Soros, a Hungarian-born Jew who has spent a large part of his fortune funding pro-democracy and human rights groups, has repeatedly been targeted by Hungary’s right-wing government, in particular over his support for more open immigration.

Kovacs said the campaign’s end-date had nothing to do with the visit of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Budapest next week. He declined to say how much the massive billboard campaign had cost.

Orban will seek a third consecutive term in an election in April 2018.

He launched the poster campaign portraying Soros as an enemy of Hungary after voters who responded to the government’s “national consultation” rejected both “foreign influence” and mass immigration.

Israel’s Ambassador to Hungary Yossi Amrani initially denounced the campaign, saying it “evokes sad memories but also sows hatred and fear,” an apparent reference to Hungary’s part in the deportation of 500,000 Jews during the Holocaust.

But the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem later issued a “clarification” saying that Soros was a legitimate target for criticism, a move that appeared designed to align Israel more closely with Hungary ahead of Netanyahu’s visit to Budapest.

Israel is normally quick to denounce antisemitism or threats to Jewish communities anywhere in the world. While it made that point in the statement, it chose to focus on the threat it believes Soros poses to Israeli democracy.

Among the organizations Soros funds is Human Rights Watch, which is frequently critical of Israel’s presence in the West Bank and its policie towards the Palestinians.

Soros, 86, who emigrated from Hungary after World War II, made his fortune in the United States and has long supported groups promoting liberal, democratic and open-border values in Eastern Europe.

Orban has long proclaimed zero tolerance for antisemitism, though he has more recently risked angering Jews with remarks apparently meant to court farright voters.