Weekly government press briefing about Budapest’s new hospitals, immigration, EU

Budapest, June 9 (MTI) – The cabinet has decided that Budapest needs four new hospital centres, the government office chief said at his regular news briefing on Thursday. Brussels and Hungary differ in principle over the issue of migration, he said.

Government plans 4 new hospital hubs in Budapest

A final decision has been made to expand the Honved hospital in the north, to strengthen St István and St László hospitals in the south of Pest, to build a new “super hospital” in the area of Kelenföld in the southwest in Buda and later to create a new hospital in north Buda. The cabinet favours developing the Kútvölgyi hospital and establishing a sports health centre there, too. He added that St János hospital in Buda will not be made into a “super hospital”.

Hungary, Brussels differ in principle over migration

Based on proposals put forward by the European Commission, preparations are under way to organise migration into Europe while Hungary rejects migration and supports families, János Lázár said.. He suggested that the two positions were “irreconcilable”.

Referring to the Hungarian government’s proposal to stop migrants at the Schengen borders and allow European countries that want to take in migrants to “select” between them, Lázár said the Austrian foreign minister had a similar position. He said he trusted that Hungarian voters would support this position in an upcoming government-initiated quota referendum.

The cabinet will discuss the issue of reception centres in Hungary on Friday and consider setting up a transit zone at Asotthalom on the Hungarian side of the border with Serbia, he said. In general, he said however, Hungary “does not need camps” and the government’s objective is to shut them down.