The head of the prime minister’s office has said that no dictum or indictment by the European Parliament will cause the Hungarian government to change its policy on migration.
Gergely Gulyás said the Lisbon Treaty holds that every EU member state has the right to take its own position on migration policy. “Anyone who voted for this (Sargentini) report — including Hungarian MEPs — drives this right away from Hungary,” he said.
The minister said that 28 EU member states do not have a common position on the issue of migration. He added that the sole purpose of the report by Judith Sargentini is to break the Hungarian government’s resistance to migration and denounce the Hungarian government for protecting Europe’s borders.
Gulyás said that Hungary is being condemned because it has made its position clear that help should be provided at the point where it is needed instead of “bringing trouble over to Europe”.
The minister said the Hungarian government will be “happy to answer” the questions raised in the report to any EU institution. “But if the EU and the EP don’t wish to dismantle the institutionalized Europe, then these sort of reports should be rejected with large majorities,” he said.
Gulyás said the distribution of votes cast indicated that the approval of the Sargentini Report was about western Europe condemning central Europe. He attributed this to a lack of tolerance on the part of the “western European elite” towards the values represented by central European societies. “Contrary to the intolerant approach of the author of the report, we are on the side of tolerance,” Gulyás said.
“We believe everyone has the right to decide whom they wish to live together with,” he said, adding that the EU would either have to accept member states’ differing decisions on migration or the bloc will be weakened and ultimately torn apart.