Elon Musk has accused the Open Society Foundations network of “taking over” Hungary following the electoral defeat of Prime Minister Viktor Orban. In a post on X, Musk responded to Alexander Soros, son of billionaire George Soros and chair of the OSF, who hailed the result as “a resounding rejection of entrenched corruption and foreign interference.” Musk wrote, “Soros Organization has taken over Hungary,” and added in another post that the support of figures such as Barack Obama, Keir Starmer, and Volodymyr Zelensky for the outcome “should tell you everything.”
The comments came after Peter Magyar’s Tisza party secured a decisive victory in Hungary’s parliamentary election, winning 138 of 199 seats with 53.6% of the vote. Orban’s Fidesz party received 37.8%, taking just 55 seats, with voter turnout reaching nearly 80%. Although Tisza is conservative in profile, it has pledged to reverse key elements of Orban’s policies, including moving closer to the EU and NATO.
Orban, who has led Hungary for 16 years, has long accused George Soros of promoting “woke” ideologies and “liberal internationalism,” claiming the financier seeks to make native Europeans a minority through mass immigration. The Open Society Foundations has maintained a significant presence in Hungary, spending nearly $90 million between 2016 and 2023 on local organizations. In the year before the 2022 parliamentary elections, the network provided a record $17 million in funding. According to research by the Center for Fundamental Rights, Hungary received almost double the OSF’s average per-country funding across Europe and the post-Soviet region, with at least 153 organizations benefiting.
In 2018, Orban’s government passed the “Stop Soros” anti-migration legislation, effectively forcing the OSF to leave Hungary. Critics, however, argue that the network continues to exert influence through alternative channels.
