Interview – House speaker: Europe should continue to belong to Europeans

Budapest, December 21 (MTI) – Europe should remain for Europeans and Hungary should continue to belong to Hungarians, Parliamentary Speaker László Kövér said in an interview to regional daily Észak-Magyarország published on Wednesday.

The sources of migration appear to be unremitting and even if the crisis in the Middle East is settled relatively soon, Africa will still remain with a population boom and poor climate prospects, Kövér said. The situation will deteriorate, and if Europe continues to do what it has done so far, it will run into catastrophe, he added.

He said he saw a chance for change in Germany and the European Union’s migration policies, which could result in priority given to the protection of external borders and stopping migration outside the EU.

Kövér said emigration from Hungary was a serious loss, though Hungary was not the only country affected by it. Among the former eastern-bloc nations, Hungary’s problem is the least serious. Some 825,000 Lithuanians, or one-third of the population, have emigrated since 1990 and some 2.5 million Bulgarians work abroad, more than the number of workers in Bulgaria, he said, adding that the trend could change by, for instance, encouraging people to have children, boosting wages and strengthening the sense of responsibility in young people for their home country, their nation and their parents.

The government has done much to stop population decline by focusing resources on its demographic policy, offering tax breaks, and also by introducing family-friendly labour market measures, he said. The government does not want to encourage all families to have children but only those that have the skills and material means to properly raise them, he added.

Commenting on ethnic Hungarian minorities abroad, he said global challenges have made it clear that “we must rely on each other with our neighbours”, and in light of this, all politicians in the former Soviet-bloc states must realise that “it is insane to consider the ethnic Hungarian minorities as a threat to national security”. He said relations are most problematic with Romania because anti-Hungarian sentiments have become stronger since 2012 and minority rights have gradually become limited, a trend which has even appeared at the level of state policy, including the administration of justice.

In response to a question, he said the destruction committed by Communism and Liberalism to the foundations of Europe’s Christian culture during the 20th century was so severe that it was impossible to restore everything. Politics must not force things on people, but people of faith with large families should lead by example, he added.

Photo: MTI

Source: MTI