The office may shut down, reportedly, by the end of August and then move to Berlin or to Vienna. The report came a week and a half after Hungarian parliamentary elections, in which the conservative, anti-immigrant Fidesz party, led by Prime Minister Viktor Orban, secured a decisive victory.

In a press release on Thursday night, the Open Society Foundations neither confirmed nor denied the report, saying that it is “closely monitoring the situation” but emphasizing that, in any case, it will “remain committed to Hungary.”

“We are considering various options, as the security of our staff in Budapest and the integrity of our work is of paramount importance,” the NGO wrote. “The Open Society Foundations are closely watching developments around the draft legislation that would dramatically restrict the activities of civil society in Hungary.”

The Hungarian-born US billionaire and philanthropist George Soros, who is well-known for promoting the rights of migrants and asylum seekers through his network of NGOs, is commonly seen in Hungary as the arch-nemesis of Orban. The Prime Minister has repeatedly accused the billionaire of tampering with the country’s internal affairs, as well as of conspiring to flood Europe with migrants, predominantly from Muslim countries, in order to demolish European values and purvey a globalist agenda.

Shortly before the elections, Fidesz introduced an anti-NGO bill, dubbed the ‘Stop Soros Act.’ The proposed legislation targets NGOs that “organize illegal immigration” and advocate for the rights of migrants through other means. The bill, if adopted, will oblige NGOs to provide government with detailed accounts of their activities and will impose a 25 percent tax on funds they receive from abroad. The legislation is expected to be voted-on shortly, when parliament reconvenes after the elections.

RT

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