Gergely Gulyás, Head of the Prime Minister's Office, said Hungary is turning to the European Commission with a request that the EU cover at least part of the costs of the country’s border fence.
According to MTI, Gulyás said migration pressure on Europe’s borders is growing and is expected to keep increasing. “It would be nice if the European Commission switched from supporting migration to supporting the protection of external borders,” he said, adding that the pressure of migration is growing as a result of the situation in Afghanistan and events at the Belarus border. The number of illegal border crossing attempts is currently a daily average of 319 as against 97 in the same period of last year, he noted.
Gulyás said the EC was unable to grasp “the right answer” to the problem, but a growing number of people, he added, were starting to realise it. He cited European People’s Party group leader Manfred Weber who, Gulyás said, had clearly voiced support for the construction of physical borders and called on the EU to contribute to border protection.
Asked about EU Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson’s recent comments supporting migration, Gulyás said every country should decide for itself whether it had a need for migrants. “Hungary has always been tolerant and doesn’t think it should tell other member states how they should decide on the issue of migration,” he said. Gulyás noted that Hungarians, in a referendum in 2016, had rejected migration “by a majority not seen since 1989”.
Photo credit: Shutterstock