Fidesz: Brussels failing to focus on stopping migration

The central focus of the way Brussels continues to handle migration is managing instead of stopping it by protecting the external borders, Bence Rétvári, state secretary at the interior ministry, told Hungarian journalists in Brussels on Thursday.

Speaking after an EU meeting of interior ministers, Rétvári said “Brussels is still forcing through what has not worked so far”.

According to Rétvári, the EU “is working to cement” details of the EU’s Migration Pact adopted in December by passing nine regulations, including a rule on distributing illegal migrants across member states according to mandatory quotas. States that refuse to accommodate migrants would be fined, he added. Under another rule, 28.3 percent of all the asylum applications should be dealt with in Hungary, which would lead to the emergence of “migrant ghettos” at the Hungarian border, he said.

“It has been confirmed in Brussels that … they want to drive further into the one-way street the EU entered in 2015,” he said. “The EU is on the wrong path; they should instead be protecting the external borders and the European continent,” Rétvári said.

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Rétvári said 99.3 percent of respondents to the latest government National Consultation public survey supported the statement that “Hungary should be protected from the emergence of migrant ghettos… So it’s important that we keep opposing plans that have only led to failure so far,” he added.

“It’s obvious that Brussels insists on its own ill-advised decisions … and it is not only like that in connection with migration but with the war in Ukraine, too,” he said, adding that “the policy of sanctions has failed and the whole of Europe is suffering from those sanctions… Still, they talk about success and achievements in Brussels,” Rétvári said.

Concerning the upcoming European parliamentary elections, Rétvári said a “new leadership” could bring about “a return to common sense … by stopping migration and achieving a ceasefire.”