Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, told lawmakers on Tuesday that recent developments in France “clearly indicate the failure of efforts aimed at social integration in Western Europe".
“It has now become clear that it is impossible to integrate migrants arriving illegally in large masses from different cultures,” Minister Szijjártó said. “Those with the vain hope that Western Europe’s integration endeavours could succeed … have seen the reports from France and are now disappointed,” the minister said. In many countries “parallel societies” have evolved and “in many cases, the quiet majority is terrified … but no tragedy will make those in Brussels come to their senses,” Minister Szijjártó said. “Tragedies in the Mediterranean, accidents in which people are killed, disturbances in large cities and thousands of burning cars will not be enough,” he added. People have the clear expectation that “the well-paid European bureaucrats in Brussels” should ensure the protection of the community’s residents and its borders, and they should stop migration, and “destroy the business model of people smugglers”, the minister said. “But the Brussels bureaucracy is again striving to press through the mandatory migrant quota in a coup-like way,” he said. “By definition, migrants forcing their entry through Hungary’s southern border are not refugees, since there is no war in Serbia and nobody’s life is in danger,” he said, adding that under international law people fleeing war should be granted temporary asylum “in the first safe country” they enter. Those who cross the Serbia-Hungary border “illegally, forcefully … violate Hungary’s sovereignty and its rules and should have no place in Hungary,” he said. Contrary to the values and rules of the bloc, the EU is withholding funds due to Hungary for political reasons, he said, adding that Hungarians had “exercised their sovereign rights and decided on Hungary’s future” in a way that “liberal mainstream in Brussels” could not abide, and were being punished for doing so.
Minister Szijjártó said 2.5 years into the seven-year budget cycle Brussels was already turning to member states for more resources, adding that spending “billions of euros” on military support for Ukraine and delivering arms which prolonged the war was “totally unreasonable”. Sanctions, he added, were damaging the European economy even when Europeans were not responsible for the war. Meanwhile, Brussels was asking Hungary to abolish its scheme to keep utility bills low, “while European bureaucrats ask for millions and billions of euros for their own salaries”, he said, adding that “the bureaucrats” had failed to take “a single step towards peace”. Also, he said European competitiveness had dropped off a cliff “and European citizens have no money”. The minister said it should be made clear why 70 billion euros was spent in Ukraine and why that sum was not enough. Minister Szijjártó asked: “Where is Hungary’s and Poland’s money? Do they still have this money? Had it been channelled to other purposes? Also, why was extra money needed to finance interest on recovery loans when Hungary and Poland have not received a single cent from this fund?” “Hungary won’t abandon its utility cuts and it won’t give a single cent to raise the salaries of European bureaucrats,” he said. Further, the money of European citizens must not go to Ukraine until the 70 billion euros spent so far has been accounted for, Minister Szijjártó added.