Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has told Reuters that Hungary does not support the new migration and refugee package presented by the European Commission on Wednesday.
Under the package, Hungary’s commitment to send people back from the southern EU states like Italy or Greece, where they first arrived, could turn into an obligation to accommodate them in Hungary, he said. Budapest will not agree to anything that could lead to Hungary being under obligation to take in people coming from the Middle East or Africa, the prime minister said.
PM Orbán added that the devil was in the details of the proposal. He called it good news that “some taboos have disappeared”, and welcomed that the bigger emphasis was on returning to their homelands those not eligible for asylum in the EU.
“We don’t think a mixture of Muslim and Christian society could be a peaceful one and could provide security and good life for the people,” he added, however.
The prime minister called Britain’s decision to exit the European Union a brave one but said that Hungary “can’t afford to follow that track” because it was too closely integrated in the EU. PM Orbán noted there is a high level of support for the EU in Hungary despite the country’s many disputes with other member states over issues such as migration and the rule of law.
Meanwhile, PM Orbán said he was convinced that Donald Trump would win the Nov. 3 presidential election. “We have an exceptionally good relationship with Trump,” PM Orbán said in his interview, adding that “probably the level of openness and kindness and helping each other will be lower should Joe Biden win”. “He (Trump) will win,” PM Orbán said.
According to MTI, PM Orbán said that the EU should lift its sanctions against Russia. The Hungarian government sees no point in imposing further restrictions in connection with the poisoning of opposition politician Alexei Navalny, either, PM Orbán said, but added that if the community should initiate such sanctions “we are ready to consider”. “We should be very, very tough on the military side in relation to Russia and we should be very cooperative on the trade side. We are very weak on military and we are very tough on trade,” he said, adding that Europe should have a powerful army.