Updated

Hungarian-American financier and philanthropist George Soros says oppression of the opposition by Prime Minister Viktor Orban's government is greater than when Hungary was under Soviet domination.

Soros said in video messages released Friday that if Orban expels the Soros-founded Central European University, he will keep it in exile and return after Orban's departure.

Orban, who opposes migration, especially by Muslims, claims Soros wants to flood Europe with migrants. Soros supports migration but says no country should be forced to take them in.

Orban, who briefly studied at Oxford on a Soros scholarship in the late 1980s, said on state radio that non-governmental organizations funded by Soros are preparing to act as political parties during the campaign before April's parliamentary election to help weaken or oust his anti-migration government.