Hungarians have made up their minds that they do not want to see illegal immigrants in Hungary, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has said.
“Nobody can oblige Hungary” to give up its position on migration, the prime minister said during his regular Kossuth Radio interview on Friday.
He added that “you can corner a government or deliver a gut punch to it” but it cannot be done to a whole nation.
PM Orbán insisted that “record high” participation in the government’s latest nationwide public survey means that “a whole nation is looking for ways to support its position of denying entry to people of a different culture or civilization”.
PM Orbán also responded to recent criticism of the country’s stance on immigration and urged German politicians to “leave us alone and not involve us in their election campaign”. Hungary has always respected Germans and “we expect them to respect us, too,” he said.
“What we want is a Hungarian Hungary and a European Europe … we won’t participate in experiments aimed at changing Hungary or Europe, in which Europe’s cultural traditions would be swept aside to be replaced by a mixture of other cultures, religions and worldviews, allowing masses to enter without control,” PM Orbán said.
The prime minister also commented on the United States’ criticism of Hungary’s recent civil organizations law, the prime minister said that the United States’ taking up a position on the matter was an “interesting venture” in the light of that country’s “brutally stringent” rules on organizations receiving support from abroad. He insisted that the new Hungarian legislation was “polite and delicate” compared to US regulations. “It is inconceivable why one would be reluctant to declare a donation once they were not shy to accept it,” he added.
Referring to groups planning a boycott of the civil organizations law, PM Orbán said that the law applies to all civil groups.
PM Orbán also noted that 2018 will bring about wage hikes in many different sectors. “We will be in a better position than we are in this year,” the prime minister said, and pointed to rising employment and the increasing number of taxpayers as well as measures to promote childbirth.