In 2015, the billionaire financier George Soros published a plan that would relocate an annual one million migrants from Africa and the Middle East to Europe, provide them with 30,000 EUR in state aid from the taxpayer’s pockets, dismantle legal and physical border protection barriers and take away the right of EU member states to define their own immigration policies. Since then, Soros has been promoting his pro-immigration agenda in the European Union through EU institutions and through his network of NGOs. Many European governments, including Hungary, oppose such a plan. Hungary is determined to let the voters have a say.
Despite numerous denials in the media, the Soros Plan does exist.
As I pointed out in previous posts (here and here), the billionaire speculator, George Soros, presented his plan to the public in a series of articles published online in 2015. In the article entitled “George Soros: Here’s my plan to solve the asylum chaos”, the financier says that “the EU has to accept at least a million asylum-seekers annually for the foreseeable future” (with no defined upper limit) and that “[t]he EU should provide 15,000 euros ($16,800) per asylum-seeker for each of the first two years to help cover housing, health-care and education costs — and to make accepting refugees more appealing to member states.” That sum, 30,000 EUR, equals approximately nine million Hungarian forints and far exceeds an average Hungarian’s annual income. The billionaire wants the countries of the EU to pay this from loans, which he anticipates will be paid back by raising taxes and cutting the EU’s agriculture and cohesion polices.
Hungary’s national consultation, sent to every voting citizen, has proven to be a cheaper democratic alternative to referendums. The high return rates – last time 1.7 million out of the less than 8 million eligible voters – also make the consultation effective.
The questionnaire (read the entire questionnaire in English here) asks Hungarian citizens if they agree or disagree with seven, individual points of the Soros Plan, including: the resettlement of at least one million immigrants from Africa and the Middle East annually to the territory of the European Union; the dismantling of the border protection fences of EU member states and opening the borders for immigrants; the redistribution by Brussels of immigrants gathered in Western European countries for mandatory resettlement throughout the EU; as well as a mandatory 30,000 EUR, 9 million HUF, state aid for every immigrant; among other provisions.
The Hungarian government has been one of the most outspoken opponents of the Soros plan. We also believe that that position should be backed by a clear expression of popular support.
“The question isn’t what I have a mandate for; the question is whether I have enough strength,” said Prime Minister Orbán during an interview on Kossuth Radio last week. The results of the public survey would demonstrate, on an international stage, that “the vast majority of the Hungarian national community shares the same standpoint” as the government.