“2.2 million people have returned their National Consultation questionnaires so far”, Minister of State for Government Communication Bence Tuzson said at a press conference in Budapest on Wednesday.
The exact figure is 2,238,925, of which 2,072,981 arrived by letter and 165,944 were submitted via the internet”, he told reporters.
According to Mr. Tuzson’s evaluation, the Hungarians regard the National Consultation on the “Soros Plan” and the fact that Hungary must take firm action against the “Soros Plan” as a highly important issue.
People still have until Friday to voice their opinions, he reminded the press.
However, Mr. Tuzson also noted that the National Consultation is under continuous attack from the Left.
“For instance, one of the organisations funded by George Soros has launched a legal action against the Consultation, the LMP has launched a smear campaign, and George Soros has launched a personal campaign against the National Consultation”, the Minister of State said, adding that Jobbik also “joined” pro-immigration organisations when one of the party’s representatives called the “Soros plan” scaremongering.
“The Left has also failed to act according to Hungary’s interests in Brussels in view of the fact that their MEPs voted in favour of the mandatory and permanent resettlement system, ‘which has Hungary in its sights’, since the mechanism ‘favours’ countries where there are no migrants yet”, he continued.
In summary, Mr. Tuzson said that Hungary’s opposition parties are going against the interests of the Hungarian people.
“Accordingly, the Government can only count on the people of Hungary in the issue: We can succeed in preventing the implementation of the Soros Plan if we, the people of Hungary, stick together”, he said.
Parliamentary State Secretary Csaba Dömötör from the Cabinet Office of the Prime Minister spoke about the fact that the National Consultation is particularly actual because “EU institutions have begun the implementation of the related plans”.
“According to the EP decision, EU funding for member states that do not want to participate in the resettlement programme would be reduced, and this would put the countries of the Visegrád Group at a particular disadvantage”, he added.
The State Secretary mentioned that the EP also plans to involve NGOs in resettlement proceedings. “This is exactly what George Soros wants”, he added.
Mr. Dömötör quoted statements by several MEPs on the issue. “Dutch liberal MAP Sophia in 't Veld, for instance, would also like to make resettlement mandatory for countries that do not want to accept immigrants; Slovenian MEP Tanja Falon called Europe a migrant continent; MEP for the Nordic Green Left party Malin Björk said nobody can be regarded as an illegal immigrant; Portuguese socialist MEP Ana Gomes believes Europe needs more migrants, and MEP Frank Engel form Luxembourg spoke about the fact that countries that refuse to accept immigrants should not be allowed to be part of Europe”, he said, listing the various statements.
According to Mr. Dömötör, it is clear from these comments that there is huge pressure n Hungary to change its standpoint.
In reply to a question, the State Secretary confirmed that the government will reporting LMP MP Ákos Hadházy within the next few days with relation to the fact that he “made false claims with relation to the National Consultation”.
He also took the opportunity to call on the LMP party politician to apologise to people who have returned their questionnaires, and to those who are taking part in the organisation of the Consultation and the processing of questionnaires.