Gulyás called Soros’s speech “yet another attack against Hungary’s sovereignty”. He said the billionaire had made it clear in his speech that his views on Hungary’s upcoming election are “based on his own interests” and that “he believes not in the power of the people but in the power of money”.

“We already knew that he [Soros] wants to influence Hungarian political life… that he wants to influence Hungarian politics by putting his faith in financial resources rather than democracy,” Gulyás said.

But in Hungary, regardless of whether or not one agrees with the cabinet’s decisions, it is up to the voters to decide who will represent them in parliament and who will get to form a government, he insisted.

Gulyás said that irrespective of political leanings, everyone in Hungary should be outraged when someone refers to their country as a “mafia state”.

The group leader said that the Hungarian government “indeed poses an obstacle to Brussels’s pro-migration policy” which he said saw Europe’s future in migration rather than effective family policies.

Asked about Soros’s claim that the opposition Socialist Party’s leaders had been ‘bought up’ by Fidesz, Gulyás called Soros’s remarks “untrue”.

He said Soros was using “an old Bolshevik trick” to “accuse others of doing what he is doing”. He said Hungary’s opposition parties had been on the same page with Soros in terms of their position on migration.

Gulyás speculated that the reason why Soros was so “hard” on the opposition was because he saw little chance for a change in government. He said comments by Soros suggesting that there were “spies” in the smaller opposition parties as well were “signs of paranoia”.

Asked about Soros’s remark that Prime Minister Viktor Orbán “started really going wrong when he made his father rich by giving him a quasi-monopoly on road-building materials”, Gulyás said “every word of it” was a lie.

He said the company owned by the prime minister’s father barely employs more than thirty people and only wins 3 percent of the available development contracts, arguing that it could hardly be considered a monopoly.

Republished with permission of Hungary Matters, MTI’s daily newsletter.