Oligarch Delyan Peevski has long wanted to establish a parliamentary investigative commission on the activities of American billionaire and philanthropist George Soros and his "Open Society" foundation. For years, however, the necessary number of votes for the creation of the commission was missing - until last week.
So, an Temporary Commission for the Establishment of Facts and Circumstances of George Soros and Alexander Soros on the territory of the Republic of Bulgaria is about to begin its activities soon. The commission must inform which individuals and organizations are supported by the father and son and have received money from the "Open Society" foundation.
For now, legal steps against individuals and organizations associated with Soros and his organizations are not planned. But someday - following the Russian example with "foreign agents" - the Bulgarian parliament may take measures. There was already such an experience in February, but then it was not a majority is found for the relevant draft law. Until that happens, the propaganda and public “exposing” of the “Sorosoids” - those who supposedly or actually have something in common with the liberal philanthropist - will continue.
During the debates in parliament related to the establishment of the commission, Delyan Peevski stated: “It is time for a decisive battle for the state. The false world of Soros and the Sorosoids must be destroyed”.
Hungary - a pioneer of campaigns against Soros
However, Peevski is not the author of the idea of turning things around and deflecting accusations of corruption and crimes from himself and defining those who make them as “Soros agents”. It was born in Hungary under the rule of Viktor Orbán. There, since 2013, media close to the government have begun to systematically list which independent civil society organizations and individuals critical of the government received how much money from “Open Society” when.
Since the refugee crisis in 2015, Prime Minister Orbán's government has for the first time started to conduct large state campaigns against Soros, which used far-right and anti-Semitic narratives. And this has a particularly unpleasant aftertaste in George Soros's homeland: the billionaire is of Hungarian-Jewish origin and survived the Holocaust in Budapest as a young man. Under Orbán's rule, however, he has been accused of planning population replacement in Europe or of being the personification of the greedy international, or rather Jewish, financial capital that plunders nation states.
The campaigns against Soros by Orbán and his government have also found their place in many laws, including the so-called “Stop Soros Package” from 2018, by which those critical of Orban and independent organizations should be financially crushed and silenced. They were later declared illegal by the European Criminal Court, but they achieved their propaganda effect.
Meanwhile, in Hungary, Soros no longer seems to be the most relevant public enemy - his place has been taken by Ukraine, which is now the new embodiment of evil for Orban's propaganda. But the Hungarian campaigns against Soros have found followers in almost all countries of Central and Southeastern Europe.
From North Macedonia and Serbia, to Poland and Slovakia
North Macedonia became one of the first countries to launch a campaign against Soros on the Hungarian model. In 2017, a movement called "Stop Soros' Operations" was founded there, whose representatives were close to former Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski. A year before he was forced to resign, he accused the protesters against regime that they were “guided by Soros”.
In Serbia, President Aleksandar Vučić, his Serbian Progressive Party and the media close to the government have also claimed for years that independent NGOs, government-critical and civil protest movements are “foreign agents” and “financed by Soros”. Regarding the current protests against the regime in Serbia, which have been going on for more than a year, Vučić does not say that they are inspired by Soros, but identifies foreign secret services and foundations from abroad as donors to the “color revolution”.
In Poland, the Law and Justice party, which ruled from 2015 to 2023, also copied Orbán's anti-Soros campaigns - for example, carrying out actions against "criminal NGOs" run by Soros and Russia, despite the contradiction - since Soros is also declared an enemy in Russia. During the 2019 and 2023 election campaigns, the narratives of Law and Justice and other right-wing populist parties stated that the "Soros network", i.e. civil society organizations and media "bought by Soros", are a threat to the Polish nation and destabilize society.
Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, who entered his fourth term in October 2023, also adopted the example of neighboring Hungary. Since 2025, a law has been in force in the country that obliges NGOs to submit detailed “transparency reports”. Before the law was adopted, Fico and representatives of his government and his party “Direction - Social Democracy” (SMER) repeatedly accused Soros and “foreign agents” of influencing Slovakia.
Albania is a special case
In countries such as the Czech Republic, Romania, Croatia and Montenegro, there have also been campaigns by right-wing nationalist and populist politicians against Soros and his network more than once in the past. But at least there are no laws against NGOs there like in Hungary or Slovakia.
Albania is definitely a special case in terms of the narratives against Soros in Central and Southeastern Europe - there they are used not by the government, but by the opposition. They serve her to criticize Prime Minister Edi Rama, who has been in power since 2013 and often enjoys resorting to authoritarian methods of governance. The national-conservative opposition Democratic Party accuses Rama of being a "beacon of Sorosism". Since 2013, George Soros and his son Alexander have been implementing a secret plan with Rama to permanently remain in power in Albania through reforms in the judiciary, the Constitution and electoral legislation.
Author: Keno Ferzek