Orban: Hungary protects ‘European family’ – UPDATE

Budapest, September 21 (MTI) – Hungary is doing the most natural thing in connection with illegal migration: it is protecting its family, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Monday.

Hungary has been an honoured member of the great European family for a thousand years and it is out of an historic and moral responsibility that it must protect Europe. When Hungary protects its borders, it protects Europe, too, he said in parliament and thanked police and soldiers for their “disciplined and humane service” at the borders.

Hungary is fighting on two fronts, while it is protecting borders it must also fight against “short-sighted European politics”.

Hungary is at odds with Brussels, it has identified different problems and different solutions, and also different consequences of problems, Orban said, adding that many European institutions should be revisited. As Europe is unable to protect its own external borders, its internal borders are closed one after the other, he added.

Orban said that many hundreds of thousands and even millions of migrants are storming the borders of Europe, including Hungary. By now, they “are not only banging on the door but breaking it open”, he added. There is a sufficient supply of further migrants, with millions of people in need of humanitarian aid preparing to flee Iraq and Syria. “The line of defence in northern Africa has collapsed”, the Arab Spring has led to chaos and the institutions of representative democracy, considered in the West as the only acceptable form of government, have proven dysfunctional in places where locals do not want them, he added.

“Europe has gone further than leaving its doors and windows open: it sent out invitations to the migrants”, Orban said.

The migrants are victims of poor political decisions and “the world has indeed turned its back on them”. It is understandable that many of those living in difficult circumstances flee to Europe, “a rich but weak region of the world” but it is clear that Europe cannot take on the grievances of the whole world, “we cannot support all economic migrants,” the prime minister said.

Orban called it understandable that Europe’s left-wing parties consider migration as an opportunity because it could help them achieve a historic aim, the elimination of nations. It is no surprise that Hungary has been condemned from around Europe when it stood up for national independence, he added.

Orban criticised European politics, noting that while Europe demands its half a billion citizens to respect the law, it is unable to force migrants to simply register themselves. He also criticised Brussels for handling illegal economic migrants as refugees. As a result, “our borders are under threat, our way of life based on respecting the law is under threat and Hungary, along with the whole of Europe, is under threat,” Orban said.

As long as Europe is unable to act jointly, nation states must protect themselves against “the brutal threat”, Orban said, citing the outcome of a national consultation in which Hungarians declared the need to protect their country.

Orban added that the Hungarian government has several proposals, such as the joint protection of Europe’s southern borders, setting up refugee camps outside the EU and helping countries that already accommodated millions of refugees. He criticised the planned European quota regime, which he said would not only “spread the problem” instead of putting an end to the cause.

Photo: MTI

Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters