Even Most Fidesz Voters Don’t Believe Soros Is Responsible For Illegal Immigration

  • 25 Feb 2018 8:34 AM
  • The Budapest Beacon
Even Most Fidesz Voters Don’t Believe Soros Is Responsible For Illegal Immigration
59 percent of respondents do not believe that NGOs are setting up “immigration organizing offices” to execute the “Soros-plan”, according to a recent poll conducted by Policy Agenda at the request of news site zoom.hu.

Even though the Hungarian government has spent tens of millions of dollars demonizing George Soros and civil society, only 27 percent of the Hungarian society agree with the statement “there are civil organizations in Hungary that seek to open immigration offices to help implement the Soros-plan.”

It comes as no surprise that voters of the ruling Fidesz party are the most receptive to the conspiracy theories of the government propaganda, with 39 percent of them believing that NGOs are seeking to open immigration offices to settle scores of Muslim immigrants in Hungary as per the “Soros-plan”.

What is remarkable, however, is that even the majority of Fidesz voters, some 52 percent, do not agree with the statement. The vast majority of left-wing-liberal voters (78 percent) reject the statement, but even among them, 16 percent believe the government propaganda.

66 percent of Jobbik voters reject the statement, while 24 percent agree with it. Undecided voters also reject the statement by a ratio of nearly three to one.

At the end of last year, Open Society Foundations (OSF), founded by Hungarian-American financier-philanthropist Soros, h in Hungary’s Dél-Dunántúl (Southern Transdanubia) and Észak-Alföld (Northern Great Plain) regions.

As a part of the project, OSF announced plans to open offices in the university cities of Pécs and Debrecen.

Two weeks after the announcement, Pécs’s Fidesz mayor Zsolt Páva and Fidesz MP Péter Hoppál called on residents of the southern Hungarian city not to rent offices to the Emberség Erejével Alapítvány(With the Power of Humanity Foundation, WPHF), the recipient of a HUF 130 million (USD 500,000) grant from OSF to regrant to local organizations.

Shortly thereafter, city councils of Debrecen and Székesfehérvár adopted similar resolutions condemning Soros and organizations funded by OSF.

At the height of the anti-Soros-NGO hysteria, the Alliance of the Seats of County Government (MJVSZ) headed by Kaposvár’s Fidesz mayor Károly Szita organized an anti-Soros, anti-NGO, anti-immigration conference an in Budapest.

The conference turned out to be only an overture for the “Stop Soros” legislative package that would essentially allow the government to impose penalties on organizations deemed to be supporting illegal immigration.

  • How does this content make you feel?

XpatLoop Media Partner

The Budapest Beacon

This online English language news outlet specialises in Hungarian current affairs, with a rather anti-govt stance. Publishing regularly since 2013, they have also released podcasts and videos, always with a committed to fact-based reporting about what is really happening in Hungary.

  • 'Budapest Pride 2.0' on Monday at Clark Adam Square Called for by Mayor

    'Budapest Pride 2.0' on Monday at Clark Adam Square Called for by Mayor

    • 28 Nov 2025 8:34 AM

    Budapest Mayor Gergely Karacsony announced on Thursday that he had convened an extraordinary assembly for Monday to reaffirm the "true financial situation" of the municipality. The decision will later be delivered to the Prime Minister’s Office in Buda Castle during a demonstration, he told a press conference.

  • Hungary Vetoes EU Higher Education Strategy

    Hungary Vetoes EU Higher Education Strategy

    • 28 Nov 2025 8:07 AM

    Hungary has vetoed the European Union's four-year higher education strategy, Balazs Hanko, the minister of culture and innovation, said in Brussels on Thursday, adding that Hungary made clear that only once Hungarian students are restored their rightful access to the Erasmus programme will Hungary approve the higher education strategy.

  • International Ranking Places Hungary in Top 10 for Safety

    International Ranking Places Hungary in Top 10 for Safety

    • 28 Nov 2025 7:39 AM

    Hungary's public security is balanced and internationally recognised, with both citizens and visitors feeling safe, Interior Minister Sándor Pinter said on Thursday at a hearing of Parliament's defence and law enforcement committee in Budapest.