Szijjarto: ‘We must fight against Brussels’, Hungarian left’s migration policy’

The task is to fight against these policy objectives over the next couple of months leading up to the general election next spring, the stake of which is clear, Szijjarto said.

Six years ago Hungary faced an invasion of 400,000 illegal migrants who crossing its southern border “marched through” the country’s territory without “showing any basic respect for us, for our laws, regulations and culture”, he said, noting that Hungary had been protecting Hungary, the Hungarian people and the whole of Europe ever since.

Hungary insists on carrying out duties in line with European laws, just as much as “we insist on our right to decide whom we want to allow to enter our country’s territory and with whom we want to live together in our own country”, he said.

Szijjarto said that the Hungarian government will continue to make every effort against Brussels’ mandatory migrant resettlement quota scheme, calling it “probably the most outstanding achievement” of the Visegrad Group (V4) that it had blocked the introduction of the regime.

Speaking about the migration policy of the Hungarian left, Szijjarto said their actions had clearly shown over the past six years that “they want to dismantle the border fence and let migrants in”. He said that their “current candidate” for the post of prime minister has “spoken at length against the government’s migration policy in his recent videos”, making reference to Peter Marki-Zay, the opposition’s joint prime ministerial candidate for next spring’s general election.

“This is why it will be at stake in 2022 whether Hungary will continue to be a Hungarian country or will become a country of migrants,” he said.

The foreign minister said Europe is facing an unprecedented migration pressure both from the south and the east. “Now our Polish brothers are making heroic efforts to protect their country’s borders. We say thank you to them for protecting us, for protecting Europe,” Szijjarto said.