On the Kossuth Radio programme “180 Minutes” on Friday, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán spoke about next month’s Hungarian general election, and background “pacts” between opposition parties which would ensure only a single opposition candidate in each constituency. He said that such pacts – which in each electoral district would pit a pro-immigration candidate against a government anti-immigration candidate representing the formation of a national government – may have already been reached. Referring to other potential opposition candidates, he predicted that “The others will disappear from the scene […] one way or another”.

He said that earlier it had been beyond anyone’s wildest political fantasy that the opposition parties Jobbik and DK would join forces, but now the time has come “for us to face up to this reality”. The Prime Minister added that the recent mayoral by-election in the city of Hódmezővásárhely, in which there was a single opposition candidate, “was as an electoral dress rehearsal for the parliamentary election”.

Mr. Orbán also said, “I can see George Soros’s money in the background, I can see his manoeuvring” – to which the only antidote, he stated, is frank, open, straight talk.

People must therefore face up to the fact, he continued, that there are some who are trying to turn Hungary into an immigrant country: “they have already been selected as candidates, there is a lot of money behind them – George Soros’s international money, his NGOs, and a large section of the foreign-owned media operating in Hungary”.

“If we want to protect Hungary and we do not want to become an immigrant country, we shall have to unite our efforts, and we shall have to fight this battle together”, the Prime Minister said.

He continued as follows:

“The reason we do not want to become an immigrant country is not only because that would bring with it terrorism and crime, and would expose our womenfolk and daughters to danger, and because our cultural identity, too […] would gradually evaporate; but it is also because the future which the Hungarian people have worked so hard for over the past eight years […] would vanish, and because eventually we would be made to pay for all the consequences and costs of immigration”.

He commented that once immigrants start to be admitted, they cannot later be “shown the door”, and “Once it has been squeezed it out, no one can get toothpaste back in the tube”.

Regarding the UN’s migration proposal, the Prime Minister highlighted that Hungary is not alone in the battle, but has allies.

He noted that the United States does not want a world in which migration is recognised as a human right and fences are dismantled, and he gave other examples of those who do not want such a world: Australia, Japan, the new Austrian government, Bavaria, the Visegrád countries (V4), and the parties who are tipped to win the coming weekend’s Italian general election.

The Prime Minister described recognising migration as a fundamental right to be the surest recipe for destroying the world and primitivising humankind.

He described it as preposterous for someone living in another part of the world to simply set out in the hope of a better life, go to a different country and demand rights there – regardless of the views of the people living in that country. In his view, if sovereignty is taken away, then ancient cultural rights, opportunities and a hard-won quality of life will be endangered.

Mr. Orbán also stated that, as he sees it, the European Union wants to push through a decision on the migrant quota during this term of the European Parliament (EP), as next year there will be EP elections, in which anti-immigration parties are expected to perform well. In addition, on 1 July Austria will take over presidency of the EU, and the new Austrian government was elected by people who do not want their homeland turned into an immigrant country. Therefore, the Prime Minister said, “Brussels and Soros’s people” have a single chance: push the regulations known as “Dublin IV” through the European institutions by 1 July. These regulations, he said, would include mandatory migrant quotas, and on the issue of migration they would take powers away from nation states.

Based on “what they’re trying to force on us”, Mr. Orbán pointed out, “they will send ten thousand people here”, and German and Austrian border controls would result in Hungary becoming “a dead-end”, where “the people we let in will stay with us”.

He therefore reiterated his position regarding the Hungarian general election: “We only need to make a mistake once […] and if we do, we will become an immigrant country”. He promised, however, that if Hungary continues to have a national government, on this issue it will use its veto in Brussels if it needs to.

The Prime Minister also spoke about the dispute between the EU and Poland. In his view, Warsaw is “in the cross hairs” because it is the Central European region’s leading country. In other words, “the reason that both the Germans and Brussels are shooting at Poland is that if they weaken Poland they will weaken the whole of Central Europe”, thereby also weakening resistance against immigration.

Regarding consultations on issues concerning the EU’s future proposed by French president Emmanuel Macron, Mr. Orbán said that it is a good idea to hold consultations on Europe’s future: “We should hold those consultations, and each country should use its own best national practices”.

He also said that in recent years Hungary has achieved fine results in economic and family policy, and in promoting a better appreciation of the role of women.

He made special mention of the opportunity for women to retire after completing forty years in employment – an initiative which, for instance, Jobbik had not voted for in Parliament. He described the extra support offered to women who decide to have children as being of the utmost importance, as Hungary’s future depends on “whether women want to live together with us, whether they want to live in a family, and whether they want to have children”. He stressed, however, that this is every woman’s own personal decision, but he would like to provide assistance to those who make that personal decision.

He concluded by saying that good family policy is pointless if the country is flooded by migrants, as in that case “the money will be spent on them”.