Franciscus Timmermans, the First Vice-President of the European Commission, said on Tuesday that it was “regretful” that a billionaire George Soros had to leave Hungary, adding that “the democracy suffers in that country.”
Timmermans said that a democracy suffered every time when an organisation that helped a socitey to build a dynamic and tolerant democracy felt under a threat and could not do its work.
“It is sad that an organisation of civil society as the Open Society foundation is closes its door in a EU member country,” he said.
Soros, of a Hungarian origin, decided to leave Hungary after the country’s Prime Minister Victor Orban launched a campaign against him, accusing him of promoting a massive migration into Europe by financing NGOs.