brought into europe, however implausibly, by another outsider, a jew. although george birnbaum stopped working for viktor orban in 2015, and arthur finkelstein died in 2017, orban continued to vilify soros in his political campaigns. the duo had given viktor orban one of the keys to his remarkable electoral success. giant billboards went up around the country selling george soros faced with the slogan, do not let the side of the last laugh. it was around the country and seemed to repeat a trip people saw in the 1930s of the grinning jew, the laughing financier exploiting the public, having a malign effect. what do you think of that campaign? i do not see it as an anti semitic trope.
here in paris tonight watching very carefully what tonight will bring. george birnbaum may be one of the most influential people in the world you have never heard of, a sought after political consultant who has helped a string of world leaders to power. benjamin netanyahu, viktor orban, as well as a serbian president, an austrian chancellor, and prime ministers in romania, the czech republic, bulgaria and even the mayor of kyiv, vitali klitschko. politically conservative with a strong sense of his jewish identity, he joined forces with arthur finkelstein in the 1990s. finkelstein was famous for making liberal a dirty word for many in america. a brilliant mathematician who liked to crunch electoral numbers. george birnbaum worked
especially as a jew, for what george soros might have been able to do post world war ii, post holocaust. i have a real problem with george soros ideology and using his wealth to project that throughout the world. george soros set up an open society foundation in hungary in the late 1980s, supporting young democrats including, at that time, viktor orban. but orban s growing interest in an illiberal democracy increasing which clashed with soros vision of a liberal one. but soros, like george birnbaum and arthur finkelstein, was jewish. identifying soros as an enemy from a country in which more than half a millionjews were deported and murdered in the second world war risked replacing the demons of the past with the demons of the present. the new threat, according to orban, came from muslim immigrants,
someone who will be able to relate to what is important to everyone. it is not about ideology, it is about making sure people s hopes and dreams are realised, and that is the solution for diminishing this polarisation of that exist today. george birnbaum, thank you very much for speaking to us today. thank you very much. hello there. it looks like this cool and blustery wind will continue to blow through the rest of this weekend. at least, though, we re seeing some sunshine. this was the scene yesterday afternoon at sutton coldfield in the midlands. further north and particularly in the north and west of scotland, this is where we ve had more cloud and some