According to Government Spokesperson Zoltán Kovács, what is at stake in next year’s EP elections is whether we can stop concepts which seek to curtail the sovereignty of Member States and to force “policies conceived in Brussels” upon Europe.
Mr Kovács was asked on the public service television news channel M1 regarding the fact that European Commissioner for migration and home affairs Dimitris Avramopoulos said in the UN General Assembly that illegal migration must be assisted and organised resettlement schemes must be carried out.
The government spokesperson said that, in addition to the fact that this is a shocking statement, “no one authorised” the Commissioner to speak on behalf of the EU as what he said surely did not reflect the positions of Hungary, the Central European countries or Italy, for that matter.
In his view if someone had any doubt about the actual existence of a migration plan and a mandatory resettlement and distribution mechanism, or about the intentions behind the reinforcement of the EU’s border and coast guard agency (Frontex), the situation has now been made perfectly clear. The goal is to curtail the sovereignty of Member States, to restrict the right of a given country to decide for itself whom to let into its territory, Mr Kovács said.
Regarding the EP elections, he said the central topic of the elections will be migration which affects every country of the EU. Either because, he continued, it poses “a direct threat” and has put the given state – such as Hungary or the Visegrád Four – to the test in the past three years, or because people are compelled to face the consequences of the phenomenon in countries including Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and the Scandinavian countries.
The government spokesperson observed that the transformation of the non-governmental organisation Migration Aid into a political party is “living proof” of what organisations which present themselves as humanitarian and human rights activists do: they engage in politics.
Mr Kovács said regarding the fact that the provision making illegal residence on public premises for habitation will enter into force on 15 October that they do not wish to criminalise anyone. The goal of the government is “to help those who have found themselves in undignified circumstances whether through their own fault or through no fault of their own”. At the same time, the government wishes to meet the expectation of the majority of people by keeping public premises clean and orderly as these public premises were not created for habitation.