According to Zoltán Kovács, Hungarian-US investor George Soros invented himself as a political actor as long as two decades ago.

On the Monday edition of the BBC’s interview programme HardTalk, the Minister of State for International Communication and Relations said if you take a look at George Soros’s manifestos, the work of the Open Society Institute, or the website Project Syndicate which serves as the primary medium for announcing plans and ideas regarding his visions about Europe, one will see “there is no need for any kind of conspiracy theory”.

Mr Kovács took the view that George Soros’s network of institutions exercises a great deal of power without a mandate coming from the people.

In response to the suggestion that these are civil society organisations which advocate human rights, the Minister of State said that in the eyes of the Hungarian government NGOs associated with Mr Soros have nothing to do with civil society. He added that civil society is grassroots, and there are some 65,000 of these organisations in Hungary at present.

In answer to a question concerning Márta Pardavi, co-chair of the Hungarian Helsinki Committee, who told the BBC that her organisation was being harassed by the Hungarian government, Mr Kovács said that while “we had a debate with a couple of dozens of [such organisations], they have nothing to do with grassroots, they do not come from the will of the people”.

According to Mr Kovács, the gap between “the leftist-liberal political elite in Western Europe” and the electorate of Member States has increased ever since the start of the migration crisis three years ago. He added that this gap must be closed because if it widens any further it could ruin the European Union.

The Minister of State denied that the Central European University (CEU) had left Budapest. He said an element of the CEU’s activity has left which is not in line with Hungarian law.

(Cabinet Office of the Prime Minister/MTI)