“The Hungarian Government initiated a referendum on illegal migration precisely so that the Hungarian people decide their destiny and not the Luxembourgian Foreign Minister”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó declared in a statement to Hungarian news agency MTI.
Mr. Szijjártó issued the statement in response to comments by Luxembourg’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Jean Asselborn on ARD German national television’s Europamagazin programme, according to which: the European Union “will die” if EU issues are decided by referendum. The Luxembourgian socialist politician added: Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán “will win this referendum” and if Hungary holds a referendum then perhaps other Member States will follow suit and then “we can throw the European Convention on Human Rights onto the scrapheap”.
In his statement, Mr. Szijjártó said: “With his usual arrogance, Jean Asselborn is rating those who don’t agree with him as second class Europeans”. According to the Hungarian Foreign Minister, Europe “will in fact die if its leaders cannot distinguish between refugees and illegal economic immigrants” and “if its leaders do not understand that they are primarily responsible for the safety and prosperity of the people who voted them into office”.