The issue of migration will be an important question of the April elections. “Will we resist, will we rebel against the Brussels decision or will the political parties of Hungary accept Brussels’ pressure and decision, and let migrants in from the West?” Prime Minister Viktor Orbán told the public service media in response to the new Brussels migration rules adopted on Monday on the plane returning from Istanbul to Budapest.
A few hours earlier, Mr Orbán wrote on Facebook that Hungary will not implement the measures of the migration pact. ‘Rebelling starts now!’ In answer to the question of what precisely this meant, the Prime Minister pointed out that “we are facing a completely new situation here, there have been many things on the issue of migration before, but not this.”
“There were times when migrants attempted to break into Hungary and through Hungary into Western Europe. And at the time, we built a fence and we’re not letting them; this is what we had so far. In fact, if anyone manages to somehow get in, we expel them. There were even situations that Brussels penalised us – which is absurd – because with this we’re defending Europe, but we still refuse to let them in, though we are required to pay 1 million euros a day. We’ve had this, too. But all of this was coming from the South,” he listed.
He added that what was happening now was an attack from the West which was an entirely new chapter in the history of migration. “Now, what’s happening is that there are countries West of us who couldn’t or didn’t want to protect themselves from migrants, and so they got in. Meaning that they are West of us. The EU has now decided that we should bring migrants in to Hungary from these countries, as in from a westerly direction,” he pointed out.
He also observed that not only did we have to protect ourselves against those coming from the South, but now additionally “they’re being let loose upon us” from the West.
“I said already before that the big question of the next generation will be how they will be able to defend themselves against migrants who managed to get into the West and who will at some point decide to head for Hungary; meaning how to protect the western borders. This won’t be easy, this will pose a serious challenge to our children, but this will be their job.”
He said he can see the first signs of this: migrants are not yet coming from Western Europe of their own accord; instead Brussels has decided to send them here. “And if we refuse to take them in – we’re talking about many hundreds of migrants – we’ll have to pay,” he pointed out.
He said this is a new chapter, and is sorry to see that there is no national unity on this. “DK [Democratic Coalition] and Tisza have supported this migration pact also so far and they support it now as well, meaning that they would consent to migrants being brought from the West to Hungary. This casts a new light on everything, and this will be a new facet for the elections, too,” he underlined.
In answer to a question relating to the number of migrants and the amount of the penalty, he said “There are all sorts of numbers, but what matters is that the Commission will always decide on these numbers – how many migrants to take in and when, how many they will let loose upon us – on an individual basis. I didn’t vote for, Hungary didn’t support, the migration pact because we said that this will happen.”
The EU will say that there is a migration emergency, there has been one for years, and with reference to this, this legislative act will give them the right to decide, meaning that rather than Hungary deciding on whether to let migrants in or not, Brussels will decide on this, and they may also enforce this with a penalty, he pointed out.
Mr Orbán laid down: “This is why we said no to the migration pact, and this is why I believe that on the part of Tisza and DK it was a decision sharply contrary to the Hungarian national interests that they supported this migration pact and with this they brought trouble on our heads. We will resist.”
