Orbán: EU’s migration pact failed

Recent reports from Lampedusa demonstrate the failure of the European Union’s migration pact which had been approved despite the objections of Hungary and Poland, the prime minister’s political advisor said on Friday.

Balázs Orbán told MTI in Rome after addressing an international conference on the future of the EU that Hungary’s position is that illegal migrants must not be allowed to enter the continent, and all applications must be assessed the territory of Europe and countries of origin and transit must be offered help. “Under the brutal pressure of migration, Brussels is not part of the solution but it is partly the problem itself,” he said. After next year’s European Parliament elections, new leaders will be needed at the EU institutions who do not “prosecute conservative governments” but cooperate with them and take into consideration member states’ geopolitical characteristics, he said.

Currently the EU does not help member states to resolve problems that truly concern the European people, he added. “A change is needed in this approach first, and the concrete measures can follow,” the political advisor said. He expressed hope that by the second half of next year when Hungary holds the EU presidency, the community will have such leaders. “Everybody has grown dissatisfied with the current Brussels leadership and their performance over the past four and a half years is unacceptable,” Balázs Orbán said. This primarily applies to the handling of the migration crisis, plus “the left-wing gender ideology has kidnapped European institutions”, he added. He said it was unacceptable that double standards were applied against member states while the EU is suffering from huge economic problems because of the ill-conceived policy of sanctions and falls behind in competitiveness.

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Hungarian government in full solidarity with the Italian government concerning migration

Balázs Orbán said it was symbolic that the meeting was held in Rome because Italy had a successful coalition of centre-right, conservative and nationalist political formations, which would be much needed also in Brussels. He stated Hungary’s full solidarity with the Meloni government which the EU had left on its own in the recent new wave of migration, the political director said. Lacking help, Italy had to take the handling of the problem in its hands and set up closed camps for migrants, similar to Hungary’s transit zones, he added. Additionally, an agreement had been concluded with Tunisia that guarantees that migrants are not allowed to cross through to Italy over the Mediterranean, Balázs Orbán said.