Fidesz MEP Balázs Hidvéghi said Hungary will not tolerate migrant ghettos on its territory. After a European Parliament plenary debate in Strasbourg on Wednesday, Hidvéghi told Hungarian journalists that other European Union member states were not adequately protecting the EU’s borders.
After the debate on the new EU asylum and migration package, Hidvéghi said Hungary rejected the mandatory distribution and resettlement of migrants based on quotas, while other EU members were determined to have multiculturalism “at all costs” and impose illegal immigration on others. Migration, he said, was now Europe’s “biggest crisis” and threatened the bloc’s most basic values and achievements such as the Schengen borders that ensure free movement within the EU. Also, public safety and everyday welfare were at risk, he said, adding that illegal migration jeopardised European culture and the European way of life. French National Rally MEP Jean-Paul Garraud told Hungarian journalists that the EU asylum package threatened member states’ sovereignty and right to take measures to stop mass migration. He said attacks against Hungary and Poland “must be stopped”, adding that the two countries represented their peoples’ interests. European Conservatives and Reformists MEP Jorge Buxade Villalba said violence and a lack of security were growing problems due to migrants arriving in Europe and enjoying free movement on the continent. Sweden Democrats MEP Charlie Weimers insisted that Sweden’s liberal migration policy had resulted in violence in society, and the asylum package awaiting adoption was not up to the job of handling the influx of mass migration, putting member states under even greater pressure. Christian Democrat MEP György Hölvényi said in a statement that ever since the migration crisis broke out in 2015, the union had been incapable of forging a credible solution to ease the pressure on Europe. Only member states on the front line of migration such as Hungary have managed to provide real solutions, he added. These countries rightly expect the EU to fund the construction and maintenance of facilities protecting the Schengen border, he said. Hölvényi also said that EU development funds should be used to address the root causes of migration in Africa by, for instance, aiding local support for education and job creation, and ensuring public safety.