Greetings to Opinion Festival by George Soros

Dear Opinion Festival,

In recent year open society in Europe has come under attack from the spread of xenophobia, racial and religious prejudices, hate speech and radicalization. These are issues every government and citizen of Europe should regard with great concern.

Open Society cannot be created overnight, this is a never ending process. In order to succeed in this path, governments must become truly accountable to their  citizens. There needs to be an ongoing dialogue within among citizens, policymakers and government leaders.

Philanthropy can play a small but essential role of the struggle to create open societies,  I am glad that I made the choice years ago to dedicate my philanthropy to the promotion of open society.

I wish you every success in this strenuous path to strengthen the voice of your diverse civil society through debates at the Opinion Culture Festival. The best way to teach people how to debate is by putting them into the hot seat, rather than making them watch other people do it and hoping they learn something.

George Soros