Justice minister calls Hungary "model state"
Orbán calls on EU to give all rights relating to migration back to member states
Hungary does not accept migration as a solution to demographic challenges because migrants, “all Muslims”, change the cultural identity of Europe, Orbán said.
He said that during the 2015 migration crisis he was the first to point out that the EU’s approach to migration could destroy European culture. The prime minister noted that already back then his position had been that uncontrolled migration could result in terrorism and social difficulties that the EU was not prepared for. “Migration must be stopped,” Orbán said.
He added that the EU could be facing another migration crisis as a result of the recent developments in Afghanistan.
As a consequence of the dispute on the migration issue inside the EU, division, differences and difficulties have been created and “we are not able to overreach that kind of gap among the opinions”, Orbán said.
“The only way to prevent the dispute on migration from destroying the unity of the EU is to give all the rights back to the nation states in relation to migration,” he added.
Reiterating the Hungarian position, he said “what we need is not newcomers instead of our own people.”
“If we invite others from outside Europe, that will change the cultural identity of Europe,” he said. “We only believe that the … traditional Christian family policy can help us out.”
Orbán said that when it came to migration, the experience of countries that have lived under Muslim occupation over the course of their history, like Hungary, was “more relevant” than the experience of the other countries. “Because the migrants who are coming now are all Muslims,” he added.
This year’s forum in Bled focuses on the future of Europe, economic recovery in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic and the enlargement of the EU.
Orbán said on the latter that Serbia was a key country and its EU membership was unavoidable also from the point of geopolitics and security. He added that the EU needed Serbia more than Serbia needed the EU.
Commenting on the future of Europe, Orbán said the EU must stay together and must maintain its unity. Economic success is a basic condition for the EU’s unity, he added, insisting that “without economic success there is no basis for common values”.
The panel discussion included several heads of government and state from the region, including Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa, Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis, and Slovak Prime Minister Eduard Heger, as well as Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic and Greek Premier Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
Also joining the discussion were President of the European Council Charles Michel, President of the European Parliament David Sassoli, Vice-President of the European Commission for Democracy and Demography Dobravka Suica, and Cardinal Secretary of State from the Vatican Pietro Parolin.
Justice minister calls Hungary “model state”
Her entry on Facebook appeared on Wednesday after Mattias Tesfaye, Denmark’s minister for immigration and integration, termed it as a mistake that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán had been criticised for having erected a fence along Hungary’s southern border in 2015.
Varga cited Tesfaye as saying that Denmark advocated strong border defence and that Europe should not make a choice between granting humanitarian assistance and building walls to protect the continent but it should do both.
“This statement and resilience over the past six years prove that Hungary is a model state as what is desire and hope elsewhere is reality here. Hungary is defending Europe’s borders and providing help where it is mostly needed simultaneously,” she said.
