Vona gives Orbán a serious headache on one-on-one meeting

In his one-on-one meeting with the Prime Minister, Jobbik’s president stated his Parliamentary faction was not going to back the anti-immigration constitutional amendment unless the government puts an end to the residency bond business. The reason is that Jobbik aims to protect Hungary from the massive settlement of any kind of migrants, including “rich migrants and terrorists” as well as “poor migrants and terrorists”.

MTI Photo: Zoltán Máthé

The one-on-one meeting between Gábor Vona and Viktor Orbán took place on Tuesday. The reason why Jobbik’s president insisted on the meeting was because he wanted to clarify if the constitutional amendment excludes “rich migrants” coming to Hungary with a residency bond, or the ban on immigrant settlement would only affect “poor migrants”.

The topic of the discussion was revealed by Mr. Vona in his press conference held after the meeting. He also added that he found the meeting unsuccessful as he was unable to convince Mr. Orbán that “the residency bond project is a bad scheme.” His position is that Jobbik can only back a Constitutional amendment that rejects all forms of immigrant settlement.

He pointed out that the residency bond business, which is connected to Cabinet Minister Antal Rogán, has allowed for the settlement of more foreigners in Hungary than Mr. Juncker wants to allocate here by way of the migrant quota. The project runs a lot of risks, including enabling terrorists with substantial funds to come to Hungary, which means that they may be able to organize a terrorist network. Thus the whole business is a major loophole.

Explaining that Jobbik had already submitted a constitutional bill six months before, which would have excluded residency bond based immigration as well, Mr. Vona once again expressed his disappointment that the government parties swept it off the table. Furthermore, the meeting revealed that the current bill proposed by Mr. Orbán (who had publicly backed residency bonds before) had no provisions for the residency bonds.

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“Jobbik can only support a constitutional amendment as long as it rejects all forms of migration and migrant settlement. We want neither poor nor rich migrants to be settled in Hungary. We want neither poor nor rich terrorists to come to Hungary. We want neither Mr. Juncker nor Mr. Rogán to be able to settle migrants in Hungary. Neither for free, nor for money. Neither across the border fence, nor by residency bonds,” Mr. Vona summarized the key topics of the meeting agenda. Jobbik’s president emphasized how vital the constitutional amendment was, that’s why he insisted on making it a real token of security rather than a half-measure.

As Mr. Vona put it, if the Prime Minister has a different view on this matter, then the constitutional amendment is nothing but a trick, a deception and it ensures a loophole for terrorism. Jobbik’s position is clear: you must not risk Hungary’s security for money.

Talking about Mr. Orbán’s reaction to his statements, Mr. Vona said Jobbik’s position gave a “serious headache” to the Prime Minister, and they agreed that he would consider it. So the ball is in the Prime Minister’s court now, he will have to decide which is more important: dirty money or the security of Hungarian people.”

Mr. Vona did his best to convince Mr. Orbán and he wished “a lot of wisdom” for making his decision. After the event, Bence Tuzson, the Cabinet Office’s Minister of State for Government Communication also held a press conference in which he made a spectacular effort to downplay the meeting. Answering media questions, Mr. Tuzson kept repeating that “like all proposals, the government will consider this one as well.”

Photo: MTI

Source: Jobbik – press release