Hungary on Friday demanded the resignation of the Senior Vice President of the European Commission Frans Timmermans after the latter called Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban an antisemite for his attacks on the Jewish philanthropist George Soros.
Hungary’s Foreign Minister Péter Szijjarto called the remarks by Timmermans in an interview with the German weekly Die Zeit “unfair and unacceptable”, noting that Hungary had “a policy of zero tolerance towards antisemitism.”
Timmermans was referring in particular to the government’s decision to force the closure of the Central European University in Budapest, which is funded by Soros.
Orban has called Soros “an American financial speculator attacking Hungary”.
Asked by Die Zeit about the decision, Timmermans noted “clearly antisemitic accents”.
