Fidesz MEP warns of ‘putsch-like’ attempt to push through EU migration package

Hidveghi told public Kossuth radio that efforts were under way to establish a system that would be a return to the quota system “that failed years ago”, “perpetuating illegal migration”.

Ministers and state secretaries at a meeting of the Justice and Home Affairs Council in Luxembourg on Thursday got the text of the new migration measures only half an hour before the vote, he said. Hungary and Poland voted against the measures, while a number of other, mainly central European member states, abstained, he added.

While Hungary has spent more than 1.5 billion euros on protecting its border, and the EU frontier, “waiting in vain” for Brussels to share the costs, efforts are under way to introduce a system that would penalise financially members states that reject illegal migration, Hidveghi said.

The political debate on migration in Hungary was the “broadest and most far-reaching” of any EU member state, and Hungarians delivered a “resounding no” to the matter of migrant resettlement in a referendum, he added.

Hidveghi noted that the European Council had clearly expressed a position on deciding migration matters with a consensus, rather than a simple majority, as on Thursday. Recent developments fly in the face of the Council’s earlier stand, he said. Taking that into consideration, as well as Hungary’s firm position on the matter, the implementation of the proposal must be prevented, he added.