Europe belongs to the Europeans, and Hungary belongs to the Hungarians, peaceful people who respect and profess our laws and customs, the Minister heading the Prime Minister’s Office stated on Saturday in Hódmezővásárhely.

Today no one denies any more that Europe finds itself in the gravest danger since the Ottoman conquest, János Lázár said at the ceremony organised by the Hódmezővásárhely Municipality in honour of King St. Stephen. He added: enormous masses of people have set out from the South-East for Europe.

Our thousand-year-old statehood compels us to have our voice heard in the debates on the future of the continent, the politician who is also Member of Parliament for the constituency said.

According to the liberal point of view, it does not matter who lives in Europe, as long as they make up the numbers that are economically necessary. Based on the most extreme liberal response, the newcomers should not even be required to adopt or to respect European customs and conventions, they may keep and even spread their own convictions without any need for adaptation, the Minister pointed out. This radically liberal response has in recent years failed miserably dozens of times, often with tragic outcomes, in cities from Brussels through London and Paris, to Barcelona most recently, he added.

Mr Lázár stressed that the majority of people agree that the leaders of Europe should no longer be concerned with the method of the distribution of migrants, but should have started considering a long time ago how to put an end to the occupation of the continent. Otherwise, a few generations down the line, we shall become a disadvantaged minority in our own homeland, and what’s more, on our own continent, he said.

The Minister pointed out that migration cannot be an effective answer to the decline of our population, it can at best offer a solution to the shortage of labour experienced by multinational capital. Europe is, however, not a multinational corporation, but a culture, a way of life, an identity, a faith, and a belief.

The politician highlighted that the Hungarian Government was the first to have raised the policy of survival from the level of the nation state to a pan-European level. More and more people are beginning to take the view that this may be an appropriate response to the historical challenges Europe is facing.