Pushed out, but Soros foundation won’t give up on Hungary

BerLin: The foundation started by US billionaire George Soros may have been forced to leave Budapest after the Hungarian government’s relentless campaigning, but it is vowing not to give up on its work there.

Despite being hounded out of the country where its first office opened in 1984, Open Society Foundations said it has not failed in its mission.

“I’d say that our mission is really tested and challenged, but we’re not about giving up,” said Goran Buldioski, who heads the foundation’s new regional hub in Berlin.

“What we have done is that we’ve moved our hub office but our work in Hungary has not decreased,” he said, adding that “mentally and programme-wise, we didn’t move”.

What has changed drastically for Buldioski and his team is their working and living environment.

Over the last year, employees at the foundation and the Sorosfounded Central European University have faced unprecedented pressure from Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who himself once received a Soros scholarship to study at Oxford.

Accusing the Budapest-born Soros of orchestrating huge flows of migrants to Europe, Orban branded as “mercenaries” 2,000 people he said worked for the philanthropist.

The foundation also began questioning if confidential data it was holding on its partners, including contact or bank account details, were safe in Hungary.

In May, the foundation, which has a global annual budget of just over a billion dollars and which funds groups working on human rights, justice and democracy, finally decided to close operations in Hungary and relocate to Germany.

In response, the Hungarian government said it “won’t be shedding any crocodile tears” over the move.

More than 80 people are now working out of Berlin, and the headcount is set to grow to between 150 and 200, said Buldioski. — AFP