Kinga Gál, an MEP of Hungary’s ruling Fidesz, said in Strasbourg on Wednesday that Hungary regards the re-emergence of the EU’s mandatory migrant redistribution quotas and the planned “fining” of member states that refuse to accommodate migrants “unacceptable”.
Commenting on the adoption in Brussels last week of a general position on a migration reform with a simple majority in what she termed a “coup”, Gál told MTI that the new migrant quota system would serve as “an invitation” for migrants to head to Europe, knowing they would be redistributed among member states instead of being sent back to their country of origin. “Instead of focusing on the mandatory quotas, the EU must openly declare that illegal migration must be stopped and the bloc’s external borders strengthened,” Gál said. The EU, she added, had not “learned anything from the mistakes it had made ever since the 2015 migration crisis”. “Hungary will fight against the migrant redistribution quotas with all possible means, taking into account the fact that Hungarians stated in a national referendum their rejection of the accommodation of illegal migrants,” she said.