In a committee hearing on Tuesday, Antal Rogán (pictured on top) the Head of the Cabinet Office of the Prime Minister said that the government would table the so-called ‘Stop Soros’ NGO bill and amend the Constitution in order to protect Hungary from undesired immigration.

On the same day, George Soros’s Open Society Foundations confirmed their earlier decision to move their regional offices from Budapest to Berlin.

In Mérce, Nóra Diószegi-Horváth accuses the government of trying to divert public attention from their failures through anti-NGO propaganda. The left-wing blogger thinks that the Hungarian government does not serve the interests of Hungarians.

Diószegi Horváth recalls that CEU Rector Michael Ignatieff has also announced that Central European University may move to Vienna, unless the government signs the agreement reached last September that would make CEU’s operation possible in Budapest. She describes the Stop Soros legislation and the ‘Lex CEU’ as pure ‘hate propaganda’.

Magyar Idők’s György Pilhál, on the other hand, interprets the Open Society Fundations’ decision to move to Berlin as admission of their unwillingness to operate in a transparent manner.

The pro-government columnist finds it absurd for NGOs funded by Open Society Foundations to accuse the government of trying to silence them. In Pilhál’s view, the Stop Soros bill is intended to make the operation of NGOs that help illegal migrants more transparent.

MTI Photo: Kovács Tamás