Opposition Egyutt launches signature drive for EU migrant quotas

Budapest (MTI) – The opposition Egyutt party has launched a signature drive to gather support for the European Union’s mandatory migrant quota scheme, the party’s leader said on Tuesday.

Egyutt also wants stricter criteria for refugee support and more humane treatment of migrants, Viktor Szigetvari told a press conference.

Egyutt believes in a strong Europe and supports a common European solution for tackling the migration crisis, he said.

This is in contrast to ruling Fidesz, which is conducting a signature drive against the EU quota system, and the opposition Socialists, who have done a U-turn on their migration policy, he said.

Prime Minister Viktor Orban is steering Hungary onto a wrong path, because the border fence is both an unreasonable and inhumane structure which has only shifted the problem onto neighbouring Slovenia and Austria, Szigetvari added.

He welcomed a similar campaign by the leftist opposition Democratic Coalition to collect signatures in support of the quota system, adding that the two parties had not coordinated on their action in advance, however.

Fidesz said in response that “the whole Gyurcsany coalition” is now convened and even “Gordon Bajnai’s followers” have joined in to support the EU’s programme which would imply that Hungary should receive immigrants numbering as many as the inhabitants of a city the size of Szeged, within a short time. The governing party’s position on the other hand is that the country must be protected, Fidesz said in a statement. It therefore asks everyone who, unlike Hungary’s Left, does not accept the EU’s mandatory quota system, to support Fidesz’s own signature drive on this matter, the statement said.

The city of Szeged had 162,593 inhabitants on January 1, 2015.

Photo: MTI

Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters