Foreign minister: German political leaders recognise importance of border protection measures

Germany’s political leaders recognise the importance of protecting external borders and acknowledge Hungary’s actions regardless of their political affiliations, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said on Friday after talks in Stuttgart.

He said that German leaders, no matter where they stand on the political spectrum, “apply a positive tone when talking about Hungary’s border protection measures and recognise that they are necessary and reasonable”.

Szijjártó held talks with high ranking officials representing the CDU, the liberal FDP and the Greens. Commenting on the latter talks, he said that even “from the opposite sides of the political spectrum” he received confirmation that “they clearly understand that Hungary’s border protection measures have also protected the whole of Europe, including western Europe and Germany.”

“Certain aspects” of illegal migration “are still a matter of debate between us but we fully agree with each other in the premise that the protection of external borders of extremely important”, he said.

German political leaders and the Hungarian government have started to think together about ways to push the “European lines of defence” further south and sign agreements with countries in north Africa and the middle East about providing EU help to stop illegal migrants on their borders.

This shows that “we share an understanding and continually work on pushing the European lines of defence further south,” Szijjártó said.

He held talks with Green politician Klaus-Peter Murawski who heads the Baden-Wuerttemberg state chancellery. He also met Guido Wolf of the CDU, the minister in charge of justice and European affairs, with the federated state assembly’s liberal group leader Hans-Ulrich Ruelke, and with Volker Kauder, head of the CSU group in the Bundestag (the lower house of parliament).

Featured image: MTI

Source: MTI