Sadly Hungary backs off on plans to kick out George Soros funded NGOs.

George Soros

     The Hungarian government retreated from a pledge to “sweep out” charities funded by billionaire George Soros, but it’s still planning to tighten rules on non-governmental organizations, according to the head of the prime minister’s office.

     A senior member of Premier Viktor Orban’s Fidesz party vowed this week to use “all tools at its disposal” to crack down on the 86-year-old billionaire’s network of charities and accused it of “serving global capitalists” and backing “political correctness over national governments.”

     The official, Szilard Nemeth, said on Thursday that U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s election victory had created an opportunity to target groups including those that fight for civil rights and against corruption. Another party official, however, backed away from that position.

     “We’re not going to sweep out anybody,” Janos Lazar, the minister in charge of Orban’s office, told reporters in Budapest on Thursday. Still, he said foreign organizations’ books would be audited because “every Hungarian has a right to know who wants to influence them” from abroad.