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Open Society Foundations vow to continue work in Hungary
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Budapest, January 11 (MTI) – The Open Society Foundations intend to carry on working in Hungary to strengthen democracy, the rule of law and justice by working together with local organisations, Christopher Stone, the organisation’s president, said on Wednesday.
The foundations backed by Hungarian-born American financier George Soros is committed to their activities in Hungary to create a more transparent and just society, even in the face of the government’s opposition, Stone said in a statement.
The statement comes after Szilárd Németh, deputy leader of the ruling Fidesz party, raised questions about the legitimacy of NGOs in Hungary. In response to a question concerning rumours about the government tabling a bill obliging the leaders of NGOs to make their income statements publicly available, Nemeth said “fake NGOs” of the “Soros-empire” should be curbed and “eliminated” because “they promote global capitalism and political correctness” in opposition to national governments.
Stone said the foundations had provided help across an “amazingly wide range” in the past three decades. In Communist times, they helped the spread of information by lending photocopiers. In the 1990s, they funded school internet programmes and donated over 3 million dollars for food programmes for schoolchildren, as well as donating ultrasound machines to Hungarian hospitals.
The foundations have offered over 3,000 grants to Hungarian students, he said, adding that Prime Minister Viktor Orbán had been among them. When red sludge spilled from a Hungarian reservoir in 2010, making several villages uninhabitable, the foundations donated 1 million dollars in 2010 for the removal of the toxic matter.
Open Society Foundations currently support over 60 Hungarian NGOs active in fields such as independent journalism, civil participation and the fight against corruption and discrimination, the statement said.
Foreign supported NGOs making political statement against the government is tantamount to treason. The money given by any foreign organization is provided that said organization expound the political views of their masters.