Despite an earlier agreement in the European Council, the European Parliament, together with the Council of the EU, announced last week that they have reached an entirely opposite agreement over tying access to EU funds to a set of notorious “rule of law criteria.”
While the details of the deal are yet to be revealed, there is no doubt that the new incentive will be used to pressure EU member states, like Hungary, that stand up against migration, protect their borders and defend national sovereignty. At the same time, as Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has also said recently, it is a shame that Brussels seems occupied with political blackmail at a time when the coronavirus pandemic threatens the health and economy of the continent and when we are experiencing a growing number attacks on our citizens by Islamic extremists.
“George Soros wrote it four years ago that those countries that refuse to let migrants in should not receive EU funds,” PM Orbán said in a recent radio interview. The PM highlighted that this latest agreement, between the EP’s pro-migration majority and the EU’s rotating presidency, contradicts the previous agreement reached by heads of state and government in the European Council.
As if one low blow were not enough, last Thursday, coincidentally, the European Commission announced that it is launching an infringement procedure against some of Hungary’s migration-related regulations. This time, the EC took issue with Hungary’s practice of having asylum-seekers outside of Hungary submit their asylum claims at Hungarian embassies, instead of allowing them to do so on the country’s territory.
It’s the classic Soros playbook: They will use financial blackmail to get member states to let illegals onto EU soil. And once they’re here, no EU country will be able to compel their return.
Speaking at a brief doorstep presser last week, György Bakondi, the prime minister’s Chief Security Advisor, made it clear that “in light of the increasing illegal migration pressure, the epidemic and the migration-related terror attacks,” Hungary refuses these proposals and will do everything it can to prevent them from coming into effect.
Meanwhile, according to Bakondi, migration pressure is “intensifying on all routes,” with more than 400 new illegals arriving on the Italian island of Lampedusa every day. In 2020, he added, Hungarian authorities apprehended nearly 31,000 illegals at the border, double the number we saw in 2019.
Photo credit: QZ