Soros to finance civil groups outside Budapest as part of campaign

George Soros’s Open Society Foundation is planning to assist civil groups in the provinces with “several hundred thousand” US dollars as part of the billionaire’s new strategy to “counter attacks by the Hungarian government”, portal abcug.hu reported on Thursday.

The portal said the campaign aimed to “present Soros as a philantropist, get closer to the people and gain popularity”.

Csaba Csontos, recently appointed spokesman for the foundation, told the portal that the foundation was planning to open new offices in Pécs, in southern Hungary, and in Debrecen in the east.

Csontos said that the funds would be dedicated to financing housing, education, health and poverty-related projects through two local organisations in the two cities.

“This is not only about contributing money but about building communities; the two new offices will function as community centres where local activists can promote initiatives in the area,” he said.

He added that the aim was to support small projects with no more than 12,000 dollars each.