“President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker should be protecting Europe’s interests”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said in a statement to Hungarian news agency MTI on Friday, pointing out that “he should at least not be offended when the Hungarian Government does so instead of him”.
The Foreign Minister issued the statement in reaction to the fact that in Paris on Friday the European Commission President called on EU member states to respect the Brussels decision on distributing refugees. Mr. Juncker referred to the fact that certain member states were not implementing the decision on distributing 160 thousand refugees among EU member states. “It’s the beginning of the end if the fixed rule, democratically worked out, is no longer respected by the member states”, Mr. Juncker stressed, primarily referring to Hungary and the quota referendum according to French news agency AFP.
In reaction, Mr. Szijjártó wrote: “The President of the European Commission is clearly extremely annoyed by the opinion of the Hungarian people”, highlighting that while Jean Claude Juncker believes what happened in Hungary is “the beginning of the end”, in the Foreign Minister’s view it is “a victory for democracy”.
According to Mr. Szijjártó, Jean-Claude Juncker “has perhaps forgotten his duty: his task isn’t to change Europe and the people of Europe, but to protect their interests”.