Speaking on the Kossuth Radio programme “180 Minutes”, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary must acknowledge the European Court of Justice’s ruling in the migrant quota lawsuit, but added that the Court’s decision is no reason for Hungary to change its immigration policy of refusing entry to migrants. He also declared that he will never consent to Hungary being turned into an “immigrant country”.
Regarding acknowledgement of the ruling of the European Court, the Prime Minister said that he borrows this turn of phrase from Slovak prime minister Robert Fico, with whom he is in full agreement, “word for word”.
He stressed that Hungary is fighting against a Brussels policy which seeks to resettle people against the will of the nation states. He called it absurd and unacceptable that Brussels bureaucrats should decide whether “these three Yusufs […] should live in Budapest”. He said that the Hungarian people alone must decide on whom they want to live alongside.
Speaking about the quota decision, Mr. Orbán said that he had exercised his right of veto in the European Council of heads of government, but despite this the European Commission launched a legislative procedure, bypassing the European Council. Hungary was no longer able to exercise a veto, and even together the Central Europeans were unable to block the Western countries. As a result, he said, a final decision was adopted which in his view means that the process raises a serious question of principle: whether the EU is an alliance of free European nations, or a Brussels-centred empire.
He said that the European Court, however, sided with the European Commission, thus opening the door for its attempt to turn Europe into a continent with a mixed population and mixed cultures. “They have opened the door to George Soros’s plan, and in the period ahead I expect to see an acceleration of this plan’s implementation”, he said.
“If a country takes the view that a given EU decision affects its national identity […] it must resist it”, he stressed.
In Mr. Orbán’s opinion, the real battle is only just beginning, because the court ruling imposes no obligation of any kind on Hungary: it merely states that the Court found the Commission’s quota decision to be lawful.
Hungary is not the only country that is not implementing the quota decision, however: it is also being ignored elsewhere, he said, adding that he thinks it will simply be impossible to implement.
“So far we have fought a legal battle […], but now we must engage in a political battle and seek to change this EU decision”, the Prime Minister said: the various EU bodies must be forced to admit that the quota decision is wrong, it cannot be implemented, it must be revoked, it must be changed. We must also prevent “the plan of George Soros’s people in Brussels” replacing the one-off quota decision with a permanent migrant distribution mechanism, he said.
Mr. Orbán also raised the question of why those who wisely protected their own countries should have a share in “this trouble”. In his view, the countries which made sovereign decisions to let in migrants should live with the consequences: the countries which have “spoilt the soup” will have to eat it. “Why should we eat the soup which they have spoilt?” he asked. He added, however, that there can be no objection to helping Germany remove from Europe those migrants who have already arrived in the continent.
Hungary has observed the Schengen regulations throughout, Mr. Orbán said, and, having also protected Europe with border protection paid for from its own budget, it has asked the European Commission to pay half of the cost of this – in the name of solidarity. “They sense that the moral balance favours us”, he observed, “but they say that they won’t finance the fence”. He described this as unacceptable, as without the fence the external borders of the EU cannot be protected. “Wherever there is a fence, there is defence, and wherever there is no fence, there is no defence”, he asserted, stating that who oppose the fence also oppose the policy of stopping migrants.
According to the Prime Minister, Brussels is applying double standards in the matter, and for this reason also a new Commission and a new mentality are needed.
In his words, today’s “top dogs” in the EU are the former colonial powers. In this context, he noted that in every colonised country those who had collaborated with the colonisers were forced to leave when the colonial era came to an end. This is how a number countries in Europe have become “immigrant countries”, he said. Furthermore, ever since that time people from outside the EU have also been continuously “pouring into” into these former colonial powers, who now want to impose their own logic on the Central Europeans. This is despite the fact that the Central European region has no colonial past, therefore has no such obligations, and “we never invited anyone to come here”.
“We are not an immigrant country […] and I will never allow any great power […] to turn us into an immigrant country”, the Prime Minister stressed.
He also rejected the idea of making immigration a precondition for distribution of EU funds, as the rules of the EU do not allow this. Nevertheless, he added, the latest ruling by the European Court means that one cannot exclude the possibility of Jean-Claude Juncker, President of the European Commission, also making this happen.
He noted that such a decision would also be immoral, given that – for instance – Hungarians working in the factories of Western companies in Hungary are paid less than those working in those companies’ countries of origin. “Therefore, if I were German, I would be ashamed to bring up the issue of solidarity”, he said, adding that “such shame should burn so fiercely that it’s a wonder Martin Schulz – the Social Democrat’s candidate for the chancellorship, who dares as a German to talk about taking money from Hungary – has not seen his beard burst into flames”.
Finally, regarding Hungary’s EU membership, Mr. Orbán made it clear that the Hungarian people themselves made the correct decision on Hungary’s accession to the EU, and no government has the authority to withdraw the country from it.