Annette Laborey is a German-French activist and long-time associate of billionaire left-of-center philanthropist George Soros. Laborey started her activism career with a focus on Eastern Europe. According to The New Republic, she became a friend of Soros in the 1980s, when he offered to fund one of her initiatives to promote left-progressive societal values in Soviet bloc nations. This initiative, run by the Paris-based Fondation pour une Entraide Intellectuelle Européenne (FEIE) or European Foundation for Intellectual Cooperation, originally received its support from the Ford Foundation. By the late 1980s, however, Soros was providing more than 75 percent of FEIE’s funding. ^{1 4}

Conflict with Polish Government

In April 2017, the Polish government, under right-of-center President Andrzej Duda, presented Laborey with a state award for her activism against Poland’s Soviet-backed socialist government during the Cold War. However, Laborey rejected the award. Instead, she published a lengthy statement in the left-of-center Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza (“The Elections Gazette”) in which she attacked Duda and his governing Law and Justice party. In particular, she criticized the government for choosing not to open its borders to Middle Eastern migrants, restricting abortion, and maintaining a close relationship with the Catholic Church. Laborey described these policies as “countless rapes of freedom” (niezliczone gwałty na wolności) and called the award an insult. ⁵

1. Tereza Pospíšilová. “Transnational Philanthropy and Nationalism: The Early Years of Central European University.” CAIRN. February 2014. Accessed October 17, 2021. https://www.cairn.info/revue-mondes1-2014-2-page-129.htm
2. Michael Lewis. “The Speculator.” The New Republic. January 9, 1994. Accessed October 17, 2021. https://newrepublic.com/article/74330/the-speculator
3. Annette Laborey. “Z żalem nie przyjmuję orderu – list do polskiej ambasady w Paryżu.” Gazeta Wyborcza. April 25, 2017. Accessed October 17, 2021. https://wyborcza.pl/7,95891,21685819,z-zalem-nie-przyjmuje-orderu.html
4. “Addressing Complaints—Ombuds Office.” Open Society Foundations. Accessed October 17, 2021. https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/policies/addressing-complaints-ombuds-office
5. Marek Nowicki. “Zainspirowana Michnikiem poczuła zniewagę.” Niezależna. April 28, 2017. Accessed October 17, 2021. https://niezalezna.pl/97892-zainspirowana-michnikiem-poczula-zniewage-nie-przyjmie-od-dudy-odznaczenia-ktore-nadal-komorowski