George Soros decries Hungary’s Orban for anti-Semitic attacks ‘reminiscent of the 1930s’

OLIVIER HOSLET | AFP | Getty Images

George Soros, Founder and Chairman of the Open Society Foundations arrives for a meeting in Brussels, on April 27, 2017.

Billionaire investor George Soros has denounced a propaganda campaign waged against him by the Hungarian government.

Soros — a Hungarian by birth whose political views are in stark contrast to Budapest’s ruling Fidesz party — said Monday he had been targeted by an administration “stoking anti-Muslim sentiment and employing anti-Semitic tropes reminiscent of the 1930s.”

In a statement published on his website, Soros also rejected seven statements in a “national consultation” orchestrated by Viktor Orban’s government, which claimed he wanted to settle at least 1 million migrants a year in Europe and pay them each thousands of euros.

The Hungarian premier has often vilified Soros, whose ideals are squarely at odds with Orban’s view that European culture is under an existential threat from migration and multiculturalism. Orban has previously described Western liberalism as “spiritual suicide” for Central Europeans.