Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has launched a new campaign against left-wing billionaire financier George Soros by distributing a questionnaire to allow Hungarians to give their opinions on Soros’s mass migration plans.
Hungarian politician and member of Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz party Lajos Kosa announced the plan for the mass survey on Thursday afternoon, Der Standard reports.
The “National consultation” is not new for the Orbán government who have repeatedly looked to the average Hungarian citizen for their opinions on various policy issues since 2010.
The survey will act more as an opinion poll than a referendum on the subject as the result will be non-binding. The Hungarian government has campaigned hard against the influence of the Hungarian-American billionaire and the networks of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) he and his Open Society Foundations fund.
Prime Minister Orbán said earlier this year that the European Union stance on mass migration was following the “Soros migrant plan”. Orbán said that the plan involved bringing in one million or more migrants to Europe every year and its long term goal was the erosion of the national sovereignty of individual nation states.
During the summer, the Hungarian government released a poster campaign to raise awareness of Soros’s activities. Some attempted to label the posters as “anti-Semitic” as Mr. Soros comes from a Jewish background, but by his own admission does not practice any religion.
The accusations were quickly quashed by the Israeli Foreign Ministry who slammed Soros saying he was behind groups that defamed the Jewish state. A member of the right wing Likud party led by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu went even further proposing a “Soros law” which would curb donations to anti-Israeli organisations.
Shortly after, during a state visit to Hungary, the Israeli Prime Minister said Hungary was “at the forefront” of fighting anti-Semitism. “I also want to thank you, Prime Minister, for standing up for Israel in international forums. You have done that time and again,” Netanyahu said.
The influence of Soros and his NGOs has severely waned over the past few years in Central and Eastern Europe. According to a report from Politico, investigations conducted by Breitbart News have been a key factor in the resistance to Soros and his policies.