Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has said the Hungarian government will not give up its right to control the country’s borders.
The prime minster made the declaration during his address at the opening of parliament’s autumn session on Monday.
“We will not allow anyone to take away one iota of our border control rights,” PM Orbán said, adding that “we have more skill in controlling the border than anyone in Brussels or in any international organization”.
The prime minister said he will fight for Hungary’s border control rights at this week’s European Union summit in Salzburg and had highlighted how Hungary had proven that it is capable of protecting its borders.
PM Orbán insisted that Hungary’s border guards were “not only professionals but patriots”, who had taken an oath to protect the country and “this is something money cannot buy”.
The prime minister said that “Brussels does not aim to protect the European Union’s borders but to set up a reception service to manage immigration rather than to stop it. They want the keys to the gate,” he insisted.
“Hungary is neither a passageway nor refugee camp; if we wanted to mix with other cultures or civilizations we would hold consultations first,” PM Orbán said, adding that he would “not advocate that idea to the Hungarian people”.
PM Orbán said immigration would be the number one issue in next year’s European parliamentary elections. In this respect, European politicians have split into two factions: those in favor of immigration and those opposing it, he said.
The prime minister said Hungary is under attack because it has decided that it does not want to become “an immigrant country” and it is “about time for the current European elite to go”, arguing that they had “failed to keep Britain inside the European Union and migrants out”.
Immigration and the “migrant invasion” is not a partisan matter but a priority for the nation, PM Orbán said.