“The May European Parliament (EP) elections will be crucial to the EU and the life of the continent because of the migration aimed at Europe”, State Secretary for International Communications and Relations Zoltán Kovács said on Swedish public television’s Agenda program on Sunday evening.
The State Secretary was interviewed together with party secretary of the governing French La République En Marche! (The Republic Onwards!) party Stanislav Guerini, who represented an opposing position. Prior to the discussion, an interview was aired with Vice-President of the European Commission Frans Timmermans, the top candidate of the European socialists.
Mr. Kovács declared that Christianity is the foundation of European civilisation, if not necessarily from a religious perspective, but certainly culturally and “if someone wants to change this then Europe will transform into something other than it has been during the past few decades”. The existing migration pressure on Europe is expected to continue in the upcoming decades, he noted.
With relation to accusations that Hungary is violating fundamental European Union values, the State Secretary declared: “We have no guilty conscience with relation to this, and we particularly had no need to have one over the past three years, since the outbreak of the migration crisis, because these accusations, including the European Parliament and European Commission proceedings against Hungary, were simply political opinions; a political witch hunt was and is being waged against Hungary”.
Mr. Kovács said that Hungary does not agree with French President Emmanuel Macron’s ideas with relation to a stronger Europe. According to Budapest, integration must only be increased where there is an opportunity to do so, and for instance protecting European borders and the establishment of a joint European defence force must be given priority.
According to Stanislav Guerini, the upcoming EP elections “could mean the end of Europe, because that is want certain forces in Europe want”.
But “if we want to continue building Europe, then we must re-establish it, and this is also what Emanuel Macron’s proposal states: Europe must be reborn”, he declared.
According to the party secretary, the most important issue at stake at the elections is climate change. “This is what they are telling our children. This is the only priority with relation to which we must combine all of our powers”, he underlined.
“We can only get to grips with mass migration using consistent European methods”, he said. Ha also said the establishment of joint Europe defence was important, as is investment in advanced technologies.
Frans Timmermans declared that the upcoming EP elections will be the most important since the first direct elections in 1979: “a battle for Europe’s soul”.
In his opinion the question is “whether or not we will be moving towards a Europe in which we are afraid of people who are different, and think that we are safe behind fences and walls”.
“Towards a Europe in which its citizens create enemies within their own society or on the other side of the border”, he added.
“I think this only leads to further confrontation and the loss of our opportunities to create a sustainable society. We must take a stand against the reactionary forces that support this using progressive ideas. Europe is the continent of minorities, and if we want to create our security by excluding others, then we will lose our freedom and fundamental European values”, he declared.
With relation to the criticism of Hungary, Timmermans said: “The situation in Hungary is saddening”.
“During the past ten years, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has been extremely successful in exploiting people’s fears. Orbán says he is fighting for Christian values, but in the meantime he is letting asylum-seekers under the supervision of the Hungarian authorities starve. European Christians should be disgusted by the fact that someone is manipulating their ideology in this way”, he underlined.