RPT: ANALYSIS - 'Like Russia In The 1990s:' Report Reveals Soros Having Tight Grip Over ECHR

BRUSSELS (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 11th March, 2020) Over years, US-Hungarian billionaire George Soros' Open Society network has been infiltrating European politics, from migration and climate to gender and religious matters, in a bid to silence the voice of a nation state, with a recent report revealing his grip over the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) therefore coming as no surprise, experts told Sputnik.

Following a six-month research, the European Centre for Law and Justice (ECLJ) published in late February a report into the extent of the influence of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) on ECHR judges and possible conflicts of interests with this regard.

The report concluded that at least 22 out of the 100 permanent judges who served in the court between 2009 and 2019 were "former officials or collaborators" of either the Open Society network or other six NGOs funded by Soros.

Moreover, such judges sat in 88 of 185 cases in which at least one of the seven NGOs was officially involved.

Soros, born György Schwartz in Hungary, will turn 90 on August 12. The Jewish billionaire made his fortune by betting against the British pound in 1992, before the introduction of the euro. He was also active during the 1998 collapse of the Russian ruble.

He has since changed direction and now sees himself as a benefactor of humanity, trying to impose his worldview, through a thick constellation of NGOs belonging or linked to his Open Society Foundations. The man destabilizing governments, supporting revolutions, influencing or even controlling international institutions and courts, proudly qualifies himself as a "head of state without a state."

The "philanthropist" sees Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and the current Russian leadership as his sworn enemies, promoting Europe's pressure on Budapest and Moscow respectively.

The ideology which George Soros disseminates through his Open Society Foundations and his myriad of NGOs aims to put an end to the nations and impose on the West his ideal of an "open society," globalist and ultra-liberal, a society without borders or sovereign states, dear to philosopher Karl Popper of whom Soros was a disciple.

While many experts agree that the EU's migration policy was greatly influenced by Soros' ideas, Gregor Puppinck, a co-author of the ECLJ report, goes further and dwells on the billionaire's grip of the ECHR.

The ECHR like other courts, national or international, is there to "say the law." In European countries, courts have their codes and must interpret them. It is a little different at the ECHR, because the written codes are small. The court has a large power of appreciation.

Puppinck, the ECLJ director and a member of the Committee of Experts on the Reform of the European Court of Human Rights, said that he had taken note of the "upsurge in more ideological jurisprudence than before," with the court now more guided by the spirit of tolerance and open society.

"In the areas of freedom of expression and religious freedom, the ECHR decisions systematically support the idea that diversity and multiculturalism are and must remain essential European values," he argued.

Each of the 47 signatory countries to the European Convention on Human Rights has a judge, member of the ECHR. When a judge seat is to be filled, the government in question submits a list of three candidates - not necessarily professional magistrates - to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe which elects one, for a term of nine years.

The persons proposed often come from NGOs, simply because they are supposed to be independent of governments. Yet, as the ECLJ's report warns, these people are not free from external influence.

The result is that Soros has a leverage on many decisions. The decisions of his Open Society lobby are sometimes overruled by the Higher Court, but it is not always the case.

In catholic Italy, there was a crucifix in each class in public schools. In 2006, a mother complained and her case was defended at the ECHR by a Soros lawyer. Three years later, Italy was condemned, considering that "the compulsory display of a symbol of a particular faith in the exercise of public authority ... restrict[ed] the right of parents to educate their children in conformity with their convictions.

" The crucifixes had to disappear. The Italian government appealed to the Grand Chamber and won, reversing the judgment in 2011. Such victories are, however, rare.

A few examples of how the Soros ideology guides policy in Europe were given by Puppinck to France's Valeurs Actuelles news magazine: Austria, Greece and Italy were forced to legalize same-sex unions; Poland was urged to promote the right to abortion; France is obliged to authorize the change of sex "on paper"; Hungary is forced to abolish life imprisonment; Russia is wrong for having condemned the Pussy Riot activists; Austria must legalize adoption by same-sex couples; the application of sharia law in Greece is validated.

In addition, many actions were launched by Soros' NGOs amid the migration crisis in Europe, including those concerning rescue at sea and condemning European nations - like Italy under the previous government - who sought to stop the migrant inflow.

According to Mischael Modrikamen, a lawyer and a former president of People's Party in Belgium, Soros has turned into the "28th Commissioner of the European Commission, very discreetly and not personally of course."

"The managers and consultants of his 'Open Society' foundation meet the European Commission very regularly to discuss programmes in progress. Lobbyists of calibre are happy if they can organize 2 or 3 high-level meetings with the Commission per year. But the Open Foundation has high-level meetings with the European commission every month, at least it was the case with the old Commission of Jean-Claude Juncker and Frans Timmermans," Modrikamen told Sputnik.

As a result, Europe is effectively co-managed by Soros' Open Society Foundation, according to the politician.

"Without any knowledge by the voters, by the citizens, George Soros influences or even dictates the policies of the European Commission, on the migrants' issue, on climate change, on its policies to Israel, on the issues of gender, feminism, parenthood, adoption and birth by same-sex parents and other social issues, on life in prison and many others," he argued.

Soros, the politician went on, disdains the patriotic feeling of people, while believing that he "knows better" what is good for them.

DECISION-MAKING AT THE HIGHEST LEVEL

Pierre-Antoine Plaquevent, a French political scientist and the author of the book "Soros and Open Society: a Meta-Policy of Globalism" (2018), notes that the billionaire's influence in Europe spreads much farther than several members of the court. He recalled that back in 2016, a leak indicated that Soros had 226 members of the European Parliament under his influence.

After having faced a heavy backlash from US President Donald Trump and the Russian government, the Open Society network has tightened its grip over Europe and the EU, he went on.

"The structure of society, in Soros model is headed by the hyper-finance, then come the 'mainstream' media and the rest. France is a good example of how it functions. Their action is very sophisticated; when there is a 'real people''s rebellion such as the Yellow Vests in France, the Soros NGOs parasite the movement by creating at the same time 'Extinction rebellion,' a climate extremist group, that is manipulated to organize demonstrations competing with the Yellow Vests for visibility, benefiting without knowing it from the financial largesse of the Open Society NGOs," Plaquevent told Sputnik.

According to the expert, it will be "very difficult to dismantle these undemocratic Soros networks," as "Europe is now like Russia was in the 1990s, with oligarchs like Soros manipulating the states."

"When you hear that Soros openly advises Europe to support Turkish president Erdogan, because he fights in Syria against the Syrian government supported by Russia, which for Erdogan is responsible for all the problems in the region, you realize at what political level Soros is active," he said in a reference to the billionaire's recent article "Europe must stand with Turkey over Putin's war crimes in Syria" for the Financial Times.

Europe, the expert insists, should "open their eyes" and take stock of the billionaire's influence on the decision-making.