Fidesz: EU immigration policy main reason behind Brexit

Budapest, June 24 (MTI) – Ruling Fidesz party group leader Lajos Kósa said the European Union’s “insufficient” immigration policy was the biggest reason behind the British people’s decision to leave the bloc.

Kósa told a press conference on Friday that every nation has a right to decide what political community it wants to be a part of. Therefore, Fidesz’s parliamentary group respects the British people’s decision.

He said most of the debates in the referendum campaign had dealt with the EU’s immigration policy. The British people have been unsatisfied with the level of protection offered by the EU, he said.

“A situation where we have a European socialist-liberal elite that is pro-immigration while most of the European people are against it simply won’t work,” he said, adding that Hungary wanted a strong Europe that listens to and looks out for its citizens.

Kósa said Hungary’s government must do everything in its power to ensure that Hungarians working in the UK do not face any disadvantages.

“Sadly we have to admit that the comment that Europe lost 64 million citizens and its second biggest economy for the sake of a few million migrants was correct,” Kósa said.

Asked about calls from the opposition for the government to withdraw its planned referendum on migrant quotas in the wake of the outcome of the UK referendum, Kósa said their arguments were flawed. He added, however, that the call to cancel the vote vindicated the government’s opinion that the opposition parties are in favour of immigration.

It is important to hold the migrant quota referendum so that Hungarians do not feel that the EU is “an unfriendly place where Brussels bureaucrats can choose to do whatever they want in whichever member state they want”, he said.

Kósa said the Fidesz group is committed to a strong EU, regardless of the British people’s decision to leave.

He called the right to free movement a fundamental European value but warned that it should not be conflated with the migration pressure the EU faces from outside its borders.

Source: mtva.hu