According to the Minister of Human Capacities, illegal immigration is not an opportunity for Europe but a danger to Europe, and the experiment of multiculturalism represents a security and cultural risk that must not be undertaken.
In an interview published by Polish magazine wSieci on Monday, Zoltán Balog said tens of millions of people are on their way towards Europe, and for this reason we must sit down and talk about what kind of future we would like. We must assure that immigration has clear regulations and principles, but it must be for member states to decide who they want to live with.
The Hungarian Government will fight against “arbitrary measures” to the full extent allowed by its legal opportunities, and is prepared to go to the furthest possible extent to defend its opinion, because it believes that the quota is “unlawful and dangerous”, the Minister declared.
Hungary does not want to leave the European Union, but it does want to change the decision-making processes, and it does not want to leave the European People’s Party either, but is fighting for its national independence and to preserve its Christian way of life, he added.
The European Commission seems “helpless, bewildered and weak” in the face of migration, and has no idea for a possible solution. It is however unwilling to admit this and is also incapable of enduring the fact that Hungary, Poland and Central Europe has come up with its own plan for a solution. Instead of searching for a consensus it is trying to force its own will onto the member states, the Minister said.
According to Mr. Balog, one of the biggest problems is that the European Commission did not learn the lessons following Brexit, and instead of searching for a joint solution is replying to any and all criticism “arrogantly and aggressively”.
In reply to a question on whether the fact that most of the migrants are Muslim has any bearing on Hungary’s opinion about illegal immigration, Mr. Balog said: “Islam is a major culture and religion, which we must respect, but Europe has a different identity, and it is clear that these two cultures are incapable of coexisting without conflict”. “The greatest difference is that in Europe, politics and religion have been separated from one another, but in the case of Islam it is religion that determines politics”, he added.
The Minister also spoke about the fact that “George Soros’s Central European University” is yet another excuse for attacks on Hungary. “This is the only foreign university operating in Hungary that does not want to conform to regulations, and instead is organising international drives to discredit Hungary, and is accusing the Government of violating university autonomy”. “Despite the fact that even the European Commission has recognised that this is untrue”, he added.
Mr. Balog also mentioned that the Hungarian Government had achieved significant results in its family policy, and there are much fewer burdens on starting a family than there were in 2010. “The number of marriages has increased by 46 percent, a figure that is unique in Europe, while the number of marriages fell by 23 percent under the socialist governments, in addition to which the number of abortions has also never been so low”, the Minister said in the interview for the Polish magazine.
In closing, the Minister also said that former Polish Prime Minister Jarosław Kaczyński and Viktor Orbán had dome to a decision on the funding of a Hungarian-Polish foundation to assist student exchanges, which will bear the name of Professor Wacław Felczak, to ensure that “Hungarian-Polish friendship not only concerns the past, but also the future”.