Foreign minister on Merkel remarks: Hungary upheld Schengen rules in 2015

Responding to the German chancellor, who said in a recent election debate that Hungary’s premier had failed to show solidarity by refusing to help refugees in 2015, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó countered on Monday that Prime Minister Viktor Orbán had ordered the authorities to uphold Schengen rules in all circumstances. 

Referring to the wave of migrants that set off from Budapest on foot in September 2015, Angela Merkel said in Sunday’s debate with Martin Schulz, her Social Democrat rival, that “Orbán took away the tickets from the refugees in Budapest and did not let the trains leave”. She added that behind her decision to accept the migrants was the fear that “Hungary won’t show solidarity in aiding the refugees”.

Szijjártó told a press conference that “train tickets do not override European law”, and only those with valid travel documents had been allowed to leave Hungary westwards.

He said the only exceptions were when the Austrian or German chancellors “expressed a different view on the issue … Their reasons in doing so are their own affairs.”

Hungary is providing aid to illegal migrants defined under international law, the minister said, adding that in order to benefit, migrants would have to turn up at the “lawfully designated stations”.