Joined by Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico and Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić, PM Orbán stressed that Hungary, Slovakia, and Serbia had long warned of the consequences of uncontrolled migration into Europe. "It didn’t take a Nobel laureate in physics to foresee this," he remarked, referring to the surge in migration since 2015.
The prime minister presented alarming figures, noting that since 2015, 8 million asylum applications have been submitted in the European Union, alongside 3.8 million illegal border-crossing attempts. "Of those, Hungary alone has stopped 1 million," he said. These figures, he argued, underscore the urgency of the situation, yet the EU’s response has been inadequate. He pointed to the EU’s failure to deport illegal migrants, explaining, "Last year, 430,000 deportation decisions were made in the EU, but only 84,000 were carried out." This inefficiency, PM Orbán emphasized, shows that 80 percent of these decisions remain unenforced.
PM Orbán criticized the Western response, asserting, "Western leaders are panicking, and from panic come bad decisions." He warned that illegal migration is dismantling one of the EU's greatest achievements—free movement within the Schengen zone.
Reaffirming his strong opposition to the EU's migration pact, PM Orbán described it as fundamentally flawed. "The migration pact is not the solution—it is the problem," he declared, pointing out the pact’s penalty clause, which would require countries to pay €20,000 per migrant if they refuse to accept them. He also criticized the fact that "the European Commission could impose unlimited redistribution during a crisis, with the definition of a crisis being decided unilaterally." PM Orbán argued that such policies unfairly burden member states, particularly those resisting forced redistribution.
Reflecting on the recent assassination attempt on Slovak Prime Minister Fico, PM Orbán noted how deeply the event resonated in Hungary. "When the attack happened, we felt the loss as if it were our own," he said, acknowledging how the tragedy had brought the two nations closer, expressing gratitude for the strengthened solidarity between Hungary and Slovakia.
PM Orbán also addressed the broader issue of national identity and the threat mass migration poses to the sense of home. "You can lose your home in two ways: being forced out or seeing everything around you change without your consent until that feeling of home is gone forever," he said, emphasizing that Hungary and Slovakia have protected their citizens from this by standing firm against mass migration policies.
In closing, PM Orbán expressed optimism about continued cooperation between Hungary, Slovakia, and Serbia, particularly in areas such as energy security. "Serbia supplies us from the south, and Slovakia from the north when eastern routes are disrupted," he explained, underscoring the strategic importance of these partnerships.