Hungarian FM: French, Luxembourg foreign ministers still seek to redistribute migrants

The French and Luxembourg foreign ministers are still in favour of redistributing migrants among the European Union’s member states on a mandatory basis, Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said on Thursday.

Reacting to recent remarks by Jean-Yves Le Drian and Jean Asselborn, Szijjártó said in a statement that such a mandatory redistribution scheme would prove “extremely dangerous” and would increase the threat of terrorism in Europe.

The minister said European leaders had a duty to restore the security of Europeans. But in order to accomplish this “we first and foremost have to be able to protect Europe’s borders both on land and at sea,” he added.

Hungary’s government has succeeded in protecting the bloc’s land borders and now Italy is trying to secure the sea borders, he said, adding that this was the reason behind the recent alliance struck between Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini.

Szijjártó also accused his French counterpart of having “taken a colonial tone” with Hungary “over the last few days”. “Hungary has never been and still isn’t a colony of France,” Szijjártó said, and called on Le Drian “to refrain from taking such a tone with our country in the future”.

Featured image: MTI

Source: MTI