Bernadett Szabo
George Soros’ pro-democracy foundation is pulling out of Hungary, in protest against the policies of far-right prime minister Viktor Orban. The Open Society Foundation group, which gives grants to civil-society groups around the world, will relocate its Budapest office to Berlin. This week, Orban announced his government would tighten restrictions on non-governmental organizations under a law dubbed the Stop Soros bill. The prime minister has repeatedly accused the billionaire financier of encouraging migrants and undermining the national culture. Before this year’s election, Orban’s campaign vilified Soros with billboards that say Open Society “invoked anti-Semitic imagery from World War II.” “The government of Hungary has denigrated and misrepresented our work and repressed civil society for the sake of political gain, using tactics unprecedented in the history of the European Union,” the OSF president said in a statement.