….When jews leave a region or country, is war near?
Soros Foundation to End Most EU Operations in Radical Shift
- Letter to grantees: “radical shift of strategic direction”
- Soros handed control of OSF to his son, Alexander, in June
Open Society Foundations, the philanthropic organization that controls most of the assets in George Soros’s $25 billion family office, is set to end a large part of its operations in the European Union as part of a retrenchment under new leadership.
Soros, 93, handed control of OSF to his son, Alexander Soros, in December, and he later announced a headcount reduction of at least 40% at the foundation, which donates money to humanitarian and democratic causes worldwide.
“Open Society’s recalibration of our work in the European Union is part of a broader change in the organization, as we introduce a new operating model that includes a global review of how we work to support democracy, human rights, and climate justice,” an OSF spokesperson said in an email in response to Bloomberg questions.
In a letter sent to grantees in Hungary and shared with Bloomberg by a person who wished not to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue, OSF said it was undertaking “radical shift of strategic direction” in a new operating model created by OSF’s leadership.
“The new approved strategic direction provides for withdrawal and termination of large parts of our current work within the European Union, shifting our focus and allocation of resources to other parts of the world,” the message said, quoting another note that had been sent to staff at OSF’s headquarters in Berlin. “OSF will largely terminate funding within the European Union, and further funding will be extremely limited.”
“The Open Society Foundations is changing the way we work, but my family and OSF have long supported, and remain steadfastly committed to the European project,” Alexander Soros said in a statement. Radio Free Europe was first to report about OSF’s slashing operations in the EU.
In the EU, OSF financed a wide range of philanthropic programs in the bloc’s eastern former communist members, including Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Romania, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria and elsewhere.
The letter to grantees didn’t provide further details of the shift, saying only that it had been decided because EU institutions “were already allocating significant resources to human rights, freedom and pluralism” inside the bloc. The spokesperson said the new model would result in a reduction in staff of no less than two fifths.
A native of Hungary, George Soros is known as a major supporter of liberal causes and Democratic politicians, and has long been a target of the political right. He founded Soros Fund Management and earned a fortune by making outsize bets, including an infamous wager against the British pound. He converted the fund to a family office in 2011.
The organization based its European headquarters in Budapest until 2018, when it moved to Berlin following a years-long campaign against Soros and the OSF’s liberal values by nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s government in Hungary. It also has offices in Barcelona and Brussels.
They lit the fuse, now they are ducking.
Elon is a brave man….. and a very angry and wealthy one.