Fidesz MEP calls for halt to migration

Fidesz MEP Tamás Deutsch says the key task in 2020 is to put a halt to migration to Europe.

Deutsch, the head of the Fidesz-led governing alliance’s group of MEPs in Brussels, told a press conference on Friday that Hungarian voters had tasked the government with preventing further migration to Europe and protecting Europe’s Christian way of life as well as Hungary’s national interests.

Citing reports of German citizens being threatened by illegal migrants in possession of firecrackers during New Year celebrations, he insisted that unlike the case of mass sexual assaults in Cologne in 2015-2016, Germany’s media had not tried to suppress the reports this time round.

He said

the European Union should introduce a new rule banning the mandatory resettlement of migrants and requiring measures to bolster the bloc’s external borders.

Asylum applications, he added, should be assessed beyond the external border and illegal immigrants returned to their country of origin.

Deutsch said it was likely the government and Fidesz would come under harsh attack in the debate on such a regulation.

Meanwhile, on the topic of the next 2021-2027 EU budget, he called for a fair budget that took into consideration Hungarian citizens’ interests. The budget itself should be reduced only to the degree Brexit would affect it, and cohesion as well as farm and rural development funds should stay level with current funding, he said. Substantive action on climate protection is needed, he said, adding that the EU should allocate new resources to meet its ambitious climate commitments.