Gergely Gulyás, Head of the Prime Minister's Office, said the European Union should “change its fundamental attitude toward illegal migration”.
“Brussels seeks to manage migration rather than stem it,” Gulyás said, adding that regulations concerning illegal migration were a national competency. “Everybody is free to decide whom they want to live together with” while controlling the bloc’s external borders is the EU’s obligation, he said. Neglecting the latter would lead to tensions “as seen in a number of places in Europe where parallel societies have emerged”. German government policy changes have “removed a blocking minority in the EU which has so far hindered progress on the Migration Pact”, Gulyás said. He added, however, that the pact would “only turn countries along the Schengen borders into Lampedusa, which the Hungarian government considers unacceptable.” He insisted that the situation at Hungary’s southern border had “escalated to the point that Hungarian border guards were shot at with live ammunition”. “Now the EU wants to allow them entry,” he added. “The Migration Pact has failed already,” he said, adding that Hungary would not “participate in any mandatory distribution; it will not implement any such decisions … we will not set up migrant ghettos.” He said the only solution was to protect the external borders and complete all refugee procedures before entry.