Hungary exposed to terrorist threat, says former secret service official

Budapest, September 17 (MTI) – Hungary is a main target of Islamist extremists because it has the second largest Jewish community in Europe, a former senior secret service official told daily Magyar Idok in an interview published on Thursday.

Europe is in the last minute to realise that it must protect its terrestrial and maritime borders, former deputy director-general Jozsef Horvath told the paper, adding that the Hungarian government had no other option but putting up a fence as a physical barrier along its border with Serbia.

“Europe is sitting on a powder keg and the top leaders of the EU have lit the fuse themselves,” he said.

Horvath said he was confident that the secret services of other European countries had shared the necessary information with their governments. But driven by short-term goals and interests, the western politicians failed to have the courage to make the same decisions the Hungarian prime minister dared to make, he added.