Open Society Foundations reacted after recent accusations launched against the American billionaire philanthropist, George Soros.
Laura Silber, Chief of his Press Office, said for “Birn” that Soros was attacked by non-liberal governments which want to shift attention away from unemployment, corruption and weak economic perspectives.
“Civil society plays an important role to make governments accountable and reinforce democracy. We are proud to support organizations that improve peoples’ lives”, she commented.
The name of George Soros was mentioned several times in Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia, Romania and Serbia, in campaigns launched against non-government organizations.
Such campaigns do often escalate during elections, when activists and journalists get accused of not being patriotic enough.
After the elections of December 11th, former Prime Minister of Macedonia, Nikola Gruevski, attacked foreign funded NGOs promising that his party would fight to remove Soros influences from his country.
The Macedonian Foreign Minister declared for an Italian media this January that activities led by Soros are being seen as unacceptable in Macedonia. Some pro-government voices have made similar comparisons in Romania, by even considering the leaders of recent popular protests as Soros agents.
Similar campaigns against NGOs have been organized in Serbia for more than one year, where Soros has been often mentioned as their sponsor.
Top Channel
