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LA STAMPA

George Soros' 20th Century History Lessons For Viktor Orban

The European Court of Justice has squashed the law that forced George Soros and his Central European University (CEU) to leave Budapest. It brought up ghosts from near and distant pasts.

Academic freedom protest in Budapest in 2018
Academic freedom protest in Budapest in 2018
Mattia Feltri

I won't give you all the details on the law — it's a hodgepodge — but, the Court says, it's a hodgepodge that violates the fundamental rights of academic freedom.


For Orbán, Europe continues to protect assorted alleged speculations of Soros, whom he paints as an enemy of the people and a super-villain financing opponents aiming to undermine standing governments.


There might be some truth in this. You might remember how Soros funded the studies of a young anti-Communist bound for Oxford University. He was indeed backing the opposition then — opposition to Hungary's forced loyalty to the Soviet Union. It was 1989, the year of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the bloody utopia, and the student he financed was Viktor Orbán himself.


You know how it works: When you're part of the opposition it's one thing, but when you're the one others are opposing, everything changes.


The story of Soros being an enemy of the people deserves a chuckle, above all, because he is used to it. He was a Jewish kid at a time when Budapest was occupied by the Nazis — for whom the declared enemies of the people were Jews and international finance.


Soros escaped, but in 1948 he found out it was not much better with the Communists, so he fled to London. And when he began to subsidize Solidarność, Carta77 and even little guys like Orbán, Moscow had a flash of genius: Soros was a scoundrel of international finance, an enemy of the people!


And so on, up to Orbán and his populist friends across the world, who have forgotten the history of the 20th century — and what it means to use similar tactics and the same old vocabulary.

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Economy

Lex Tusk? How Poland’s Controversial "Russian Influence" Law Will Subvert Democracy

The new “lex Tusk” includes language about companies and their management. But is this likely to be a fair investigation into breaking sanctions on Russia, or a political witch-hunt in the business sphere?

Photo of President of the Republic of Poland Andrzej Duda

Polish President Andrzej Duda

Piotr Miaczynski, Leszek Kostrzewski

-Analysis-

WARSAW — Poland’s new Commission for investigating Russian influence, which President Andrzej Duda signed into law on Monday, will be able to summon representatives of any company for inquiry. It has sparked a major controversy in Polish politics, as political opponents of the government warn that the Commission has been given near absolute power to investigate and punish any citizen, business or organization.

And opposition politicians are expected to be high on the list of would-be suspects, starting with Donald Tusk, who is challenging the ruling PiS government to return to the presidency next fall. For that reason, it has been sardonically dubbed: Lex Tusk.

University of Warsaw law professor Michal Romanowski notes that the interests of any firm can be considered favorable to Russia. “These are instruments which the likes of Putin and Orban would not be ashamed of," Romanowski said.

The law on the Commission for examining Russian influences has "atomic" prerogatives sewn into it. Nine members of the Commission with the rank of secretary of state will be able to summon virtually anyone, with the powers of severe punishment.

Under the new law, these Commissioners will become arbiters of nearly absolute power, and will be able to use the resources of nearly any organ of the state, including the secret services, in order to demand access to every available document. They will be able to prosecute people for acts which were not prohibited at the time they were committed.

Their prerogatives are broader than that of the President or the Prime Minister, wider than those of any court. And there is virtually no oversight over their actions.

Nobody can feel safe. This includes companies, their management, lawyers, journalists, and trade unionists.

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