The only remedy for migration is not to allow migrants into the country, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán declared in an interview with public radio on Friday.
Intelligence reports on migration ‘paint a dire picture’ and strengthen the government’s resolve to ‘carry on with what we have been doing so far’, he said. Hungary was the first country which stated that ‘migration and terrorism go hand in hand’, and data also underpin this view, he added.
‘It is obvious that migrants are increasingly aggressive and resort to violence against each other and the border guards,’ Viktor Orbán said. He noted that the situation at the southern borders was becoming critical because it ‘is being shaped and organized’ by people trained to do so.
Migration is assessed differently by people without children as opposed to those who brought up children. The former consider migration to be an issue that concerns only them, while the latter also consider what type of country they want to leave behind to their children, the PM suggested.
Orbán said the issue is not whether one would come across migrants in Budapest in the next 20 to 30 years, but the fact that once migrants were allowed in, they could not be moved out. ‘And this means that our children, our grandchildren and several generations that follow will live in a world that will be unpleasant, uncertain,
full or terrorist acts, crime and mini ghettos like Gaza,’
he said, adding that this could still be prevented. The situation in several Western European countries, former colonizers, has been dire for some time, and the 2015 wave of migration only exacerbated that. ‘In some countries, the local residents think that the country will never be the same as it was when they were born there,’ he added.
Orbán said change was needed in Brussels regarding a migration policy that had ‘ruined the Western member states’ and which should not be forced on Hungary. Hungary has a ‘tolerance offer’ which is being communicated to the Germans, the French and the people in Brussels. ‘Hungary does not want to tell them how they go about their business but asks one thing: they should tolerate that Hungary acts differently,’ Orbán explained. Orbán reiterated that the issue of migration would be the focus of a ‘big fight’ in the coming months as well as a key theme in next year’s European Parliament elections.
Referring to a planned government public opinion survey, the prime minister said that if the government received confirmation of its policies in a National Consultation, then the Hungarian government would be able to ‘hold out’. Hungary must protect its southern border and it must protect its position in Brussels, he said. Additionally, regulations on migration must be tightened in response to the increasing pressure of migration. A new asylum law must clearly define who and on what legal grounds is allowed to reside in Hungary, and the law must be strongly enforced. According to the prime minister, unless the legal grounds and timeframe for foreign stays in Hungary are clearly defined, ‘they will steal the country from us’.
‘Hungary belongs to the Hungarians, including jobs here and the right to decide how to live,’
he declared, stating that parliament would adopt the legislation by year-end.
Regarding the EU, he said it had been created to ensure peace and prosperity in Europe. ‘But there is a war now, and we lag behind in competitiveness compared to large economic blocs of the world such as China, Asia and the US.’ ‘The Brussels leadership is making bad decisions that impact us all,’ Orbán said, citing migration, the issue of Ukraine’s EU membership and the bloc’s relationship to the Russia-Ukraine war as examples. According to the prime minister, the ‘leadership in Brussels has been captured by a globalist elite and financial power interests,’ and they no longer represent the interests of ‘the Hungarian, German, French or Italian people’.
As for Ukraine,
Orbán suggested that at one point an agreement in Istanbul had been ready to sign
but ‘the Ukrainians didn’t sign at the behest of the US, or at least that’s the diplomatic gossip.’ Europe’s stance during the 2015 Crimean crisis had been that the conflict must be contained ‘because an all-European conflict is not in our interest’. As the US entered the arena, a new approach replaced isolating the conflict with expanding it, he said. ‘That is not in the interest of Hungary or Europe,’ he nailed down. ‘The war is ruining Europe…What we are doing now is unsustainable and should not be continued.’ Hungary did not support sending weapons to Ukraine and continued to oppose ‘sending Hungarian taxpayers’ money there’, he reminded. Orbán said Hungary was ready to provide humanitarian aid to Ukraine but ‘funding the Ukrainian state and helping them to fight with weapons bought with our money’ would have dire consequences for Hungary and would result in bankruptcy.
On the topic of the economy, Orbán said real wages have been growing since September, as confirmed by an OECD report. He predicted that economic growth would be restored in Hungary next year after having contracted to zero, ‘or even below that’ this year. Raising the minimum wage, the wages of skilled workers and the launch of CSOK Plus, a revamped home purchase subsidy programme, ‘are matters for 2024’ designed to boost Hungary, its economy and the situation of Hungarian families, he said.
The prime minister insisted that the EU should give Hungary what it owes it, and the start of talks with Ukraine should not be connected to the monies Hungary is entitled to. He also remarked that ‘Brussels’ wants Hungary to abolish its tax on excessive corporate profits, its utility cost reduction programme and the cap on loan interest rates. ‘But that would ruin the lives of Hungarian families,’ he stressed. A new, better and friendlier European Union leadership is needed in Brussels,’ the prime minister said.
Related articles:
Sources: Hungarian Conservative/MTI
