Orbán: European court decision must be taken into account – UPDATE

Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, in an interview to public radio on Friday, said he completely agreed with Slovak premier Robert Fico that the European Court of Justice decision to dismiss Slovakia and Hungary’s complaint concerning EU mandatory migrant quotas had to be acknowledged.

But at the same time, this was no reason to change Hungary’s policies on immigration, he said.

Orbán said the European Court’s decision had “opened the door” for the implementation of the “Soros plan”.

“I will never contribute to making Hungary an immigrant country,” he added.

Former colonial countries of the European Union have become “immigrant countries” and “they now want to force their wish upon us”.

“I have been given authorisation from Hungarian voters to guard Hungary’s culture and identity,” he added.

“The real battle is just beginning and a political battle will be necessary,” the prime minister said. Any permanent mechanism to replace temporary distribution must be prevented, he added.

“So far we’ve been fighting a legal battle … now we have a political fight to change this EU decision,” he said.

“The court’s judgment does not oblige Hungary to do anything; it merely ruled whether the quota decision was lawful or not,” he said.

The prime minister said that Hungary was not the only country not to have implemented the quota plan. “Indeed, the plan cannot be implemented.”

Orbán said in the interview that it was “absurd and unacceptable” that “Brussels bureaucrats” should determine “which three Yousefs should live in Budapest”. “The decision on whom to live with should be for Hungarians alone.”

The PM insisted that he had vetoed the quota plan in the European Council but the European Commission, skirting the council’s decision, nevertheless launched a legislative process that Hungary could no longer veto. “The central European countries were not sufficient to block the westerners,” he said, adding that this is how the decision on relocating asylum seekers had come about.

The case, he said, raised a serious matter of principle, namely the question of “whether the EU is a free alliance of European nations or a Brussels-based empire”.

The European court, however, stood by the European Commission, he said, opening the door to attempts to make Europe into a continent of mixed populations and cultures. “They have opened the door to [US financier] George Soros’s plan, and I expect they will accelerate its implementation in the coming period,” Orbán said.

“If a country considers that an EU decision will affect its national identity … then it must oppose it,” the PM said.