‘There are several similarities between Hungary and Texas in their politics,’ Minister of Justice Judit Varga stated in an interview with The Dallas Express, published on Wednesday.
‘We believe in family, national sovereignty, and we don’t think that mass illegal migration would be beneficial for the future of our country, and the list go one,’ she remarked.
The US newspaper noted that the minister has long been a vocal advocate for protecting Hungary’s sovereignty and traditional family values. Her first trip to Texas was motivated by the desire to ‘strengthen cooperation among conservatives across continents.’
‘We need to make friendships, get to know each other, and find common ground,’ said Varga. ‘While there might be differences in the details, when it comes to fundamental principles, I believe we understand each other’s words,’ she added.
Looking at the immigration crisis in the United States, she drew parallels between Hungary’s struggle with the Brussels institutions of the European Union and Texas’s fight with Washington.
‘We respect others, but we also expect respect for our national policies, which are supported by the vast majority of voters, and based on this support, we can maintain strictly protected borders,’ she noted. ‘However, in the heart of the European Union, we face a backlash for this,’ she added. ‘We are putting a stop to mass illegal migration, and by doing so, we not only protect the Hungarian borders but also Europe’s external borders, the so-called Schengen border. This defence is very costly, 1.8 billion euros, but the European Union did not reimburse us for this amount,’ explained Judit Varga. ‘We have to be very strict about who we let into this earthly paradise,’ she asserted.
Varga emphasised the need to differentiate between genuine asylum seekers and economic migrants,
suggesting that the EU’s current immigration legislation is not suitable for doing that. ‘The European refugee and migration legal framework is outdated. It is not suitable for dealing with 21st-century mass migration,’ she opined. ‘It was designed at the end of the last century, and at that time, there was not such a challenge as we have today,’ she added. ‘We said “no” to mass migration in a referendum and are consulting with our citizens,’ she continued. ‘And at the same time, this is the key to our success: standing by the people,’ the minister highlighted.
Regarding the Ukrainian war, the minister reminded of the unprecedentedly extensive assistance Hungary has been providing to its neighbour. ‘Since the outbreak of the war, we have accepted over 1.5 million genuine asylum seekers from Ukraine. We provide them with healthcare, accommodation, travel, transportation, whatever they need. We are human beings, Christians, we have a heart, and we know that this severe refugee situation is real.’ However, she noted, the country’s southern borders are typically not seeing refugees but economic migrants arrive in large numbers. ‘They come through safe countries…They are not persecuted anywhere, and I don’t think it is a human right anywhere in the world for someone to point to a country on the map and say, “I have the right to live there.” We stopped 270,000 illegal immigrants last year,’ she pointed out.
She spoke about the history of the past centuries, which, according to her, proved that Hungarians are an inclusive people. ‘We have always been the bulwark of Europe because we live in the corridor that leads to Europe, in the Carpathian Basin. This current 21st-century economic migration is harmful to our culture because its pace and magnitude are too overwhelming for us to integrate,’ said Judit Varga. ‘Throughout the centuries, Hungary has been able to accept many foreigners…They came and then became part of our nation…They learned the Hungarian language and adapted to Christian norms,’ she emphasised. Supporting border security, as she explained, is ‘not inhumane, not directed against anyone, not discriminatory, it’s merely a very rational and instinctive awareness of who we are and who we want to be a hundred or a thousand years from now.’
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Source: MTI
